A Touch of the Sun

A Touch of the Sun was a B feature starring vehicle for Frankie Howerd.

He plays William Darling, an ace hotel concierge in London. Guests seek him out for his attention to detail for the hotel residents.

When he is left a large sum of money by a grateful guest. Darling hops it to the south of France and has a miserable time.

He gets ripped off by all and sundry. When Darling returns to London, he finds his hotel has gone bust in his absence.

The guests had no reason to check in because Darling was not there.

Now Darling plans to buy the hotel. He needs to persuade the lecherous investors from the north.

The plot is pretty feeble. The south of France part was nonsense. The rest of it was let's buy a hotel farce, with a musical number put on.

Howerd was someone who thrived with writers who could bring out his talent. Here it is all wrong.

I found it a grim experience to sit through this joyless & humourless second feature B film. It looks and feels like that this film was made on the cheap. Even the holiday scenes in the South of France, which could have offered glamour and romance, were dull and uninspiring. After only half an hour, I realised that I would have to grit me teeth as I found the dialogue puerile and Frankie Howerd's voice and facial expressions particularly tedious. The storyline is weak and totally unconvincing. Characters came in and out of the story without rhyme or reason. Dennis Price, a wonderful character actor, is wasted in this film, as he has too little time on the screen. The film was meant to be a showcase for Frankie Howerd, cast as a hall porter, but it sadly revealed that although he was a great stand up comedian, acting was his 'Achilles Heel.' The fact that Howerd dominates most of the scenes is unfortunate as I became quickly irritated at his one note and lack lustre performance. After watching this film, it was clear that Frankie Howerd was out of his depth as a comedy film star.

Frank Howerd is the hall porter -- we'd say desk manager or concierge -- of the Royal Connaught Hotel in London, where he eccentrically and charmingly manages matters for the guests. One of the guests expresses her appreciation by leaving him ten thousand pounds in her will. He quits and moves to the south of France, where he's perfectly miserable. He returns to London, but the hotel has closed without his help. So he buys it and tries to get some Manchester investors to put money in the place. However...

It's a style of comedy that does not appeal to me. Howerd's performance seems more calculated than wild, and the big set-piece that makes up the final third seems rote. There's some talent on display; Dennis Price plays the hotel manager in a role that looks like a day's shooting, and Gordon Harker is present without much to do as the elevator operator. Clearly intended as a vehicle for Howerd, the movie will have its charms for his fans; however its structure seems more like a poorly outlined farce than anything else.

Our boy Frankie comes into a sizeable amount of money as a hotel receptionist. After spending some of his money living it up in France, he decides to come back to London and buy up his old hotel. However, he needs some fincial backers who will only invest if the hotel is successful. Only problem is they have no guests, so the staff play the role of guests while still doing their jobs.

The film spends too much time with Frankie in France experiencing a series of contrived annoyances that eventually leads to his decision to come back to England.

This means there is little time to develop and run with the farce element of the film. The plots tries to be frenzied and amusingly chaotic, but it never really makes it. Everything runs far too smoothly. With no edge of the seat potential errors that could bring the entire ruse crashing down.

The film doesn't explore any comic potential such as regular faces being recognised as both staff and guest or people needing to be in two places at the same time. No quick changes no split-second timing.

As a result, the film trundles along at a pace with nothing really happening.

A forgetable film that is not worth remembering.

Frankie Howerd takes the leading role in this standard British farce that was so common in the late fifties and doesn't do a bad job either. Usually more familiar in a supporting role,he takes centre stage here and all the action revolves around him.

The basic plot is the grass isn't always greener on the other side as Frankie finds out when his desired dream to retire to the French Rivera is a complete disaster. Returning to the UK he buys his old employment hotel and has to convince three businessmen it's worth investing in. Cue lots of rushing about farce proceedings as Frankie makes the hotel look busy with his small staff putting on numerous disguises.

Still quite amusing and watchable for it's short running time but it's the little things that kept me interested. Most of all Frankie's strange 'Eraserhead' hairstyle, Alfie Bass,the atypical Jewish performer,playing a Yorkshireman! And Ruby Murray's appalling attempt at acting, thank goodness she has a nice singing voice that's all I can say....