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A young girl is engaged to a man she doesn't love, and rather than marry him, she decides to flee the situation altogether. She is helped by a crusty old barge Captain.

Judy Gunn, Jack Hawkins, and Ronald Shiner in Beauty and the Barge (1937)

"It's nice to be on terra firma again after life on the rolling ocean!"

This quota quickie from Twickenham is one of their last before Julius Hagen was caught up in the great financial crash of 1937 which brought down not just his company but Gaumont British.It is an interesting factor of this film that most of this film is made on location and very little in studios.Judy Gunnis being kept in her room because she doesn&#39;t want to marry the man of her father&#39;s choice.She escapes and meets a young naval lieutenant on leave Jack Hawkins.At the same time Gordon Harker the master of a Thames barge is romancing Margaret Rutherford.Ronald Shiner is his third hand.So basically it is a rather broad and not particularly funny film which ensures that Jack is going to marry Judy after a 2 day engagement.The main point of interest is in seeing 3 stars on the rise,Hawkins,Shiner and Rutherford.

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Beauty and the Barge

as per a (the!) previous review, this is not a film of the first order by any means. However it is interesting to see some of the actors involved at this stage in their careers. Jack Hawkins had worked much on stage by this time and had already made several screen appearances. Here he is so skinny I didn&#39;t recognise him at first; fifteen years later he was voted Britain&#39;s favourite film star, having made &#39;The Cruel Sea&#39; amongst others. Although made by &#39;Twickenham Studios&#39; it seems that the interior shots may have been filmed nearby in Hammersmith Studios. Much of the film was shot on location, on what appears to be a non-tidal tributary to the Thames, e.g. upstream of Teddington lock perhaps. I&#39;m no expert on Thames barges but these remarkable vessels were on the one hand seaworthy, yet could also navigate in waters as little as 3ft deep and could also be beached if necessary. The one in the film looks smaller than some others I have seen, and would probably have been crewed by two, so most likely no &#39;third hand&#39; would have been required. At the time the film was made, Thames sailing barges were in steep decline, and indeed the one in the film looks more than averagely decrepit. If the plot to this film seems a little old-fashioned for 1937, this is because it was; the film is based on a 1905 play, which had already been made into a silent film (of the same name) in 1914. I saw this film on the &#39;talking pictures&#39; TV channel and the &#39;Reknown Pictures&#39; version that was broadcast appears to have remastered in 2015. For a comedy, this is a bit short on laughs, but Gordon Harker has some amusing verbal affectations and mispronunciations, of a kind that reminds me of those seen much in &#39;Steptoe and Son&#39; years later.

Tinny and garrulous, this trivial Twickenham potboiler manages to feel studio-bound despite being attractively mounted against a picturesque backdrop of rural England in summer. An interesting cast are not seen at their best, with a (relatively) young Margaret Rutherford fleetingly flitting in and out of the action and an almost unrecognisable Jack Hawkins giving no hint of the actor he would later become. Gordon Harker was of course never young.

Beauty and the Barge is a low wattage farce. A low budget comedy that has early appearances from Jack Hawkins and Margaret Rutherford. Ethel Smedley (Judy Gunn) is engaged to marry a man from Canada who she has not seen for several years. She has now changed her mind and wants to do her own thing. Her father has her locked up in her room but she escapes and plans to run away. Just in time as her suitor shows up. She is aided by crusty barge Captain Barley (Gordon Harker.) He takes a bit of a shine to her but Barley seems to like charming the ladies when he lands his boat. Lieutenant Seton Boyne (Jack Hawkins) is also smitten by Ethel and pursues her. The film is a knockabout comedy, it probably goes on for too long and the humour has now dated. Ethel has a modern attitude, Boyne is a little bit too creepy. The older characters pretend to be younger than they are in their pursuit for romance.

An interminable mess which isn&#39;t even salvaged by the presence of a young Margaret Rutherford and Jack Hawkins. Absolutely nothing happens for the entire movie, and the main character, a barge captain played by Gordon Harker, is an obnoxious, self-important bore

Young Judy Gunn doesn&#39;t want to marry her parent&#39;s choice of a husband for her so she sets sail for freedom, protected by grumpy but loveable Gordon Harker in this quirky British comedy. A young Jack Hawkins is her real love interest, and perky Margaret Rutherford is the frazzled chaperone who finds her and keeps getting locked in the insides of Harker&#39;s boat, ultimately interrupted by the arrival of Gunn&#39;s family. Reminding me of the working class comedy British farces of the late 50&#39;s and early 60&#39;s, this is pleasant enough and fast moving, with Harker, Hawkins, Rutherford and Ronald Shiner providing enough laughs and Gunn a splendidly feisty, independent heroine. Rutherford didn&#39;t change a bit over her 30 years in film, and steals every moment she&#39;s on, while Harker is loveable even at his crankiest.

User reviews

Beauty and the Barge

Broad farce aided by 3 rising stars

interesting period piece

"It's nice to be on terra firma again after life on the rolling ocean!"

When the barge comes in

Beauty and the Barge review

Down with this engagement with ships.

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