Penny Paradise

I saw this film at the NFT where it was showing as part of the Carol Reed centenary season.The film is set in Liverpool but Edmund Gwenn and Betty Driver speak with thick Lancashire accents more appropriate to Manchester than Liverpool.I found it difficult to understand what they were saying at times.This film emanates from a period when films would actually be made for the Northern part of the UK.The best example being Mancunian Films.It is quite clear from both the story and the budget that this film was not meant for showing in the South of the country.If it did get a showing it was probably in the morning when the cinema was being cleaned,in order to comply with the quota requirements of the Cinematograph Acts.This like many other Ealing films had musical numbers dotted at regular intervals in the story.It would appear from the programme notes that accompanied the screening that most reviewers of the day thought that Betty Driver was doing a Gracie Fields impersonation.Maybe because Gracie had come to the end of her contract with Ealing and Basil Dean was looking for a replacement.I actually found the numbers quite a bright spark in what was rather a simple minded farce.Jimmy O'Dea is in the middle of his brief flirtation with UK films.his acting leaves a lot to be desired.Even the marvellous Edmund Gwenn can do little to breath life into this.

Fans of Waking Ned Devine and The Jackpot might want to look up the very obscure, old British flick Penny Paradise. Edmund Gwenn, in a rare pre-Santa Claus role that showed no inkling of the jolly old elf, stars as a poor, low class fellow who wins the lottery. He spends most of his time in the bar with his pals, taking care of his daughter Betty Driver, and shyly wooing Marie O'Neill. When he gets his sudden windfall, everything changes - but is it all for the best?

Betty gets a number of suitors, but who are interested in her instead of her money? Everyone wants to get their hooks into Teddy's money, and he finds himself throwing parties and racking up bills before he can keep up with them. Marie is disgusted by his fortune, insisting that he's changed since he's become rich. Can poor Teddy and rich Teddy become one and the same? Check out this cute comedy to find out, and to hear Santa talking in a fun Liverpool accent.

I admit I only saw this picture as second choice to "Of Human Bondage", which was booked out by the time I got to the cinema; but it turned out to be a thoroughly good-humoured and enjoyable little comedy that drew laughter from across the audience. Edmund Gwenn and Jimmy O'Dea shine as a double-act of the captain of a Liverpool tugboat with a wimpish whistle and his happy-go-lucky Irish first mate, and a selection of formidable womenfolk give them something to think about at home, from the captain's daughter (Betty Driver), to the widow he's courting and the sanctimonious Aunt Agnes. The humour is by and large undemanding without ever becoming crude, with the exception of a couple of pure slapstick moments; and there are many jokes made by sight gags alone without labouring the point, as when the embarrassed Captain Higgins encounters first the glare of a hostile child and then, turning away in confusion, the glassy stare of a large dead fish. It rarely puts a foot wrong or over-emphasises a joke for fear the audience might miss the point -- indeed, if anything it errs the other way, for the heavy local accents and tinny recording meant that some of the lines (and laughs) only came through belatedly when the wording became evident from the reply.

I'm not clear whether this was meant to be a musical or not; it features a number of fairly gratuitous musical numbers which I felt on balance to be a misjudgement, especially those sung (or lip-synched) by Betty Driver. A contemporary reviewer described the unfortunate Miss Driver as "a spirited young woman with a voice translated by either recording or reproduction into the accents of an electric saw", and while unkind, the description is a little too accurate for comfort. Her performance as an actress is competent without being outstanding, although again her voice can be difficult to follow.

Jimmy O'Dea as Pat, the little Irishman, also performs a song on demand, which comes across rather better due to the sentiment being so utterly at odds with the character's demeanour: it's played for laughs, whereas Betty Driver's ballads are apparently intended to be taken at face value. His was definitely the most memorable performance among the cast, although Edmund Gwenn in the lead role also gives good value.

"Penny Paradise" is not a big-budget production (although the period scenes of location work on the Mersey are nowadays fascinating), but it enjoys a good script and admirable actors, which generally counts for more, and the pacing is generally excellent. And everyone gets exactly what they deserve in the last reel, which is always a satisfying experience!

Cynthiahost (a reviewer from the States) can be forgiven for saying at the end of her review "Betty Diver only did a few films.", which is true but Betty DRIVER went on to become one of the major stalwarts of the long running (still going!)soap Coronation Street where she played Betty Turpin.

I've just watched this film from my set of The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection DVDs and have to admit I didn't recognise her at all – shame on me! Very good film though, which I thoroughly enjoyed albeit I don't think there was one Scouse accent in it, which was surprising as it was set in Liverpool and most of the actors had Mancunian accents.

A studio-bound but quietly effective early film from the up-and-coming Carol Reed praised by the not easily impressed Rachel Low as "Surprisingly realistic in it's atmosphere and with the usual good acting". An eighteen year-old Betty Driver is appealing as Edmund Gwenn's daughter and Ethel Coleridge memorably dour as his ghastly Aunt Agnes.