Up with the Lark

The music hall team of Revnell & West were popular on radio and like Fred Allen looked funny enough to work well in films too. This sequel to 'The Balloon Goes Up' (1942) sadly proved their only other film vehicle since Gracie West (the little one) had to retire shortly afterwards due to ill health. This film therefore provides a valuable record of the pair in full flight.

Shot in just five weeks at Merton Park and on a farm in Sutton, the plot is the old Scooby Doo standby about black marketeers frightening away the locals with fake ghosts. More elaborate compared to it's extremely perfunctory predecessor, in addition to good photography by Stephen Dade, it also gives brief but showily offbeat roles to Ian Fleming & Ivor Barnard.

A real find...!