London Entertains

As this film got a TV showing in the UK in 2017 I manged to see it. I was a boy when the film was made and visited the Festival of Britain and the Festival pleasure gardens both of which the film is about.

The film is worth viewing to see some of the scenes in London during 1951. Many of the buildings and attractions have since gone. The story is of little interest and is rather sexist.

For those who do not know London, the Festival of Britain was by the Thames on the South Bank. The Royal Festival Hall was built for the festival and is still in use as a concert hall. The pleasure gardens were in Battersea Park, they stayed open for several years after the festival but have now all gone. The BBC used the Aeolian hall for radio shows and the "Goon Show" was a popular comedy show which ran for many years. The Windmill Theater has had many uses, but the building is still there and open with similar entertainment as of past.

Do not expect much entertainment from this film but if you are of an age to remember the people in it and the places they show, you may find it worth looking at once for memories of your younger days!

This film is so incoherent that it virtually defies description though the esteemed David Macgillvray has done a good job of trying.I found most interest in seeing London as it wad around 1951'When Ramon Andrews opens his window onto Leicester Square you can see the Desert Fox is playing at the Odeon Leicester Square.Later when the camera travels around Piccadilly Circus you can see a big advertisement for The Magic Box starring Robert Donat.Then you see the front of the London Pavilion where a film called The Sound Of Fury is playing.Also shown is the Windmill Theatre.All you would guess from the film is that it is a theatre featuring musical review rather than nude revues.You really do have to admit old E J for trying to foist this on the public.If ever a title was an oxymoron this is it.

After nearly sixty years even an E.J.Fancey quickie like this made on half a shoestring acquires considerable archival fascination as host Eamonn Andrews himself observes "a souvenir of those six months" in those far off days in the summer of 1951 when Britain was preparing for the Festival of Britain and there were four Goons. (We are also treated to a rare glimpse of Jimmy Grafton and Dennis Main Wilson, whose names we often heard on the show but never saw.)

Possibly the last surviving cast member is a fresh-faced young Vincent Ball, now 97 years old. Joe Baker looks older here as 'Hiram' than he did on TV a quarter of a century later. And despite the annoying Hammond organ score, even a humble programme filler like this was in those days quite slickly put together with the aid of some snazzy optical whipes.

This curiosity was made in order to promote the Festival of Britain.

There is a threadbare storyline of some eligible young ladies from a finishing school who have formed an agency. Television and radio personality Eamonn Andrews has been roped in.

Andrews really presents some acts of the time as well as the development of the South Bank of London for the festival.

Some people like to say light entertainment is not like it used to be. The acts here are proof that it really was lousy in the old days.

The only standouts are the footage of the Goons. It may not be funny to modern audiences, but at least it was anarchic. They are also the only act that was diverse.

It also showcases Eamonn Andrews, although this is not his best representation. The former boxer was a major force on British television. Originally for the BBC and later for ITV as presenter of shows such as This is Your Life.

It's probably impossible to say for sure at this juncture, but it seems likely that E.J. Fancey wangled money (from a precursor of the London Tourist Board?) for a documentary about the Festival of Britain and then, in his inimitable manner, cobbled together a wrap-around narrative to make the film more appealing to general audiences. The story pretends that young ladies from a Swiss finishing school have formed an agency to conduct foreign visitors around the Festival. For no reason Eamonn Andrews is involved in the scheme. The chief interest today, because everything has now almost entirely been swept away, is footage of the South Bank site both under construction and in operation and the Festival Gardens in Battersea Park. But there's precious little of it. Instead we get night club acts and comedy routines. The clip that has been most often seen is of producer Dennis Main Wilson introducing The (four) Goons prior to a recording of the radio show referred to as "Crazy People". Otherwise there's a lot of library footage. The material purporting to be of a show at the Windmill Theatre seems to be from a pre-war film. Jimmy Grafton's sex-obsessed narration is boring in the extreme. For a similar Fancey production see "Calling All Cars" (1954), which may have developed from a documentary about the cross-channel car ferry. Spike Milligan does the again abysmal narration. It's one of the quirks of history that all The Goons' earliest screen appearances came about through E.J. Fancey. Clearly the boys were so keen on exposure in their early days that they didn't care what they did.