CARDBOARD CAVALIER
UK, 1949, 96 minutes, Black and white.
Sid Field, Margaret Lockwood, Mary Clare, Gerry Desmond, Claude Hulbert, Irene Handl, Miles Malleson, Peter Bull.
Directed by Walter Forde.
Cardboard Cavalier was a star vehicle for comedian Sid Field. He was a vaudeville and stage star who had appeared in the musical extravaganza, London Town in 1946. It was not a box office success. However, Field died the year after the release of Cardboard Cavalier.
Margaret Lockwood, a favourite of British films during the late 1930s (The Stars Looked Down, The Lady Vanishes) and of the war period (especially The Wicked Lady) appears as Nell Gwyn.
The period is that of Cromwell and the Restoration, Sid Field portraying Sidcup Buttermeadow as an awkward young type who overthrows Cromwell and ushers in the Restoration.
A number of character actors appear in this rather madcap British comedy. A commentator noted that there are similarities in spirit to Rob Reiner’s 1987 The Princess Bride.
1. The British film industry after World War Two? Dramas? Comedies?
2. The black and white photography, the parliamentary and Restoration settings? London town? Squalor? The countryside? Affluence? The musical score?
3. The personality of Sid Field, his stage and vaudeville background? His ability to carry a film? Comic and bumbling style?
4. The farcical tone, the serious period? The blend of jokes and reflection on the period?
5. Audience knowledge of Oliver Cromwell, attitude towards Cromwell, the execution of Charles I, the parliament, the civil war? His governorship? Military efforts, especially in Ireland? The contrast with Charles II, in exile after the death of his father, the royalists and their support in France? Exiled during the period of the Commonwealth, his return, the Restoration? His reputation, style? His women – and Nell Gwyn?
6. The atmosphere of the Commonwealth? The puritan atmosphere? Prison, cruelty? The world of spies, soldiers? Cromwell himself?
7. Charles II and the way that he was portrayed, in exile, the monarchists and the spies? The letters and arrests?
8. Sidcup Buttermeadow as the cardboard cavalier and the irony of the name? Sid and the nuts, the soldiers, in the stocks? The encounter with Nell, nice? With Lovelace? Tom and Nell? His mission, the rehearsal? The Tower and Nell Gwyn? The dancing master? Sid as Matilda? The ghost, the heroics, the end with Sir Sid?
9. Margaret Lockwood as Nell Gwyn, singing, pleasant, her encounters with Sid, the relationship with Tom? Ideas? The court? The Tower? Dancing and the end?
10. Lovelace, espionage, his arrest? The contrast with Tom and the relationship with Nell?
11. The women, Milady Doverhouse and her contribution? Lady Agnes? Maggie? The contrast with the comic styles of the men: Sylvester Clutterbuck, Judge Gorebucket, Uriah Groop, Murder Casket, Brother Barebones, Mosspot?
12. The ghost? The comedy – with the slightly supernatural touch? The blending of history and farce?
