User reviews

This film was shown at the NFT last night as part of the ""Lost And Found" season.This film was made at Warners Teddington studio.Alas when Warners many years ago offered their films to the NFA they were rejected and unfortunately they were junked.Many of these films were thought to be lost but occasionally one comes to light.This came from a film collector who had a rather battered 16mm print,but let us be thankful for small mercies.This is a very engaging if unlikely story.Mr Draper is a man of fixed views and routines working as a clerk in a finance office.For some strange reason he is thought to be the perfect occupant of the £100 window on a racecourse.A punter has a big win and invites him and the family to a shady nightclub for a celebration.Mr Draper goes to the illegal roulette wheel.There we are supposed to believe that this man is so unworldly to sit down at the table and start gambling with £20 chips running up a debt of £2000,a large sum in those days.His world starts to unravel although it is of course happily sorted out,a bit too pat,at the climax.So many familiar faces in this film.Ann Crawford,sadly to die so young in her mid thirties;David Farrer as a youthful Detective;Marie Lohr playing mum as usual;an incredibly youthful Richard Attenborough;a brief appearance by Pete Murray,the DJ.Frederick Leister gets the chance to shine in a leading role,as he was mainly a supporting actor.Well everyone go and look in your attics in case you have a print of a missing film and maybe one day we will be able to see all of the Warner Teddington films restored and there for generations to come.

Frederick Leister is a bookkeeper for a bookmaker. He is a stuffy but kindly paterfamilias, who tut-tuts at son Richard Attenborough reading at the breakfast table, but slips him five pounds. He quite approves of daughter Anne Crawford's engagement to David Farrar; he and wife Mary Draper even buy some land to build them a house.

In short, he's a fine fellow. So when his employer decides to open a window for hundred-pound bets at the race track, he's to man it. There's no business, it's just a publicity stunt, but unsavory sorts, with names like "Chick" and "John D. Humphries" see this as an opportunity. Soon, Leister is called into the office, told he has to make up the difference, and finds his middle-class existence collapsing.

This is one of the B movies Warner Brothers produced at the Teddington Studio. A lot of them were missing, in part because the head of the BFI at the time -- whose name I will not mention, may it be forgotten forever! -- turned down the offer of prints because they weren't important enough. Soon enough a buzz bomb got them, and this one vanished for 70 years, until a 16mm. print with a blurry soundtrack showed up.

It was a tough watch because of that, but a rewarding one, because director Brian Desmond Hurst makes it all look improvised in character. Leister never harrumphs, but he seems supremely natural in his performance. A very nice little movie.

Since his screen debut in 1942, Dickie Attenborough received screen roles each year. His characters were quite insipid, especially when he played panzy young Englishmen who have no relevance to a contemporary audience.