Go to Blazes

One of the best British Comedy films of all time. 3 Crooks steal a fire engine as a getaway vehicle for their crimes. David King, Norman Rossington and Daniel Massey are on excellent form as the crooks, Massey steals the show as the spiv who dates Maggie Smith. Robert Morley gives his greatest performance as a crook scientist. Check this film out, you will not be disappointed!

A relatively little known British comedy from 1962 filmed in wide screen colour. Good cast, good credible script with a novel plot by Patrick Campbell, fascinating views of sunny London in 1962. A pleasant way to spend 90 minutes. I guess that people with an interest in fire brigades will particularly like it.

The late lamented Maggie Smith made an auspicious screen debut in the unfairly neglected 'Nowhere to Go' (1958), which could have represented a radical new departure for Ealing had they not closed their doors for good after only one more film.

The film was intended to be Smith's first film under a seven-year contract with Ealing, but in the event she was only to make one more film for them before her role in 'The VIPs' marked her conclusive entry into the big league.

Smith's second film was the nearest she made to a classic Ealing comedy in which she looks gorgeous in colour and 'scope and provides an early opportunity to demonstrate just how funny she could be as a refined French lady who slips into cockney when upset.

Dave King, Dennis Price, Norman Rossington, Daniel Massey, Coral Browne, Maggie Smith, and Robert Morley star in "Go to Blazes" from 1962.

King, Rossington, and Massey are a gang of smash and grab crooks. Every time they smash and grab, they are caught and sent to prison. En route to prison one day, they discuss their options and decide to get their hands on a fire engine next time. That way, they can speed and look official.

They manage to buy a dilapidated engine; however, they keep being stopped to fight real fires. They appeal to an ex-firefighter (Dennis Price) to teach them how to be real firemen. He does.

One of the men, Harry (Massey) romances Chantel (Smith) who works at the couturier next door to a bank. One of the funniest scenes occurs when the Morley character - who is an arsonist by trade - tries to start a fire in the salon and can't!

Good film with solid performances. Maggie Smith was so young here - 28 at the time - and she's lovely and funny.

A fun ending, too.

It isn't one of the best films in the mould of The Lavender Hill Mob or Three Way Stretch despite a good cast. I switched on part way through and here were scenes where you could see it was shot in Elstree or Barnet High high street especially when the Lonon Country bus went past. Of more interest was the escape scene where the fire engine went past the duck pond on Hadley Common, Down Bakers Hill and the sunken lane in Hadley Woods. This was used by vehicles in the 1960's as I remember an ice cream van by the lake.