HUE AND CRY
UK, 1946, 82 minutes, Black and white.
Alistair Sim, Jack Warner, Valerie White, Douglas Barr, Harry Fowler, Joan Dowling.
Directed by Charles Crichton.
Hue and Cry is one of the first postwar Ealing Studios films. It was written by T.E.B. Clark, former policeman, who was to go on to write a number of films including classics like The Lavender Hill Mob, Passport to Pimlico. It was directed by Charles Crichton who had already directed an episode of Dead of Night and was also to direct The Titfield Thunderbolt and The Lavender Hill Mob – and co-directed A Fish Called Wanda in the 1980s with John Cleese.
Alistair Sim appears as a writer of some pulp fiction. Jack Warner who usually appeared as a policeman and an upright character, is the villain.
The film uses bombed London as location, giving a vivid sense of the immediate postwar period and the look of London. The film is both comedy, with the young kids of London discovering some gangster activity, modelled on a comic book that they read, and set out to thwart it. The film turns a touch violent towards the end with the fight between the gangsters and the children, especially the final confrontation between Harry Fowler and Jack Warner.
However, it is interesting to look at many decades later, an example of Ealing Studios’ fine film-making – and presenting images of British life.
1. Ealing Studios, their skill in small-budget films, comedies, slices of life?
2. A picture of 1946, the immediate postwar period, life in London, shops and stores, activities of gangsters, of the police? The pulp fiction writer? The ordinary sequences of streets, locations and buses? The musical score?
3. The title, the reference to the activities of the children and their pursuit of the criminals?
4. The opening and closing with the choir, the innocent-sounding boys, singing “On the Wings of a Dove”, the finale with the same song with their black eyes and injuries?
5. The choirmaster, taking the comic, throwing it out the window? The older boys reading it? Their attitudes towards each other, the touch of bullying? The discovery of the criminal activity, the numberplate, the police not being able to find it? The boys realising what might have happened?
6. Their discovery of what was actually happening, Rhona and her taking home the manuscript, the writer and his sending it in, the printing of the comic, the reading of the story, the adaptation by the criminals?
7. The boys and their pursuit, Joe and his leadership, Alec and his Scottish accent, Clarrie and the girl’s presence? Their visiting the author, his fluster? Their deciding to follow it up – later getting him to write another copy, using their information, blackmailing him? His fears? A funny turn by Alistair Sim?
8. The inspector, getting Joe the job with Nightingale? The irony that Nightingale was the crook? The episode with the furs and Jago? The intervention of the police? Joe and his contacts at the printers, their decision to follow Rhona, getting in the bus, her giving them the slip, following in the taxi? Tying her up, her being frightened of the mouse? Nightingale and his coming to free her? The boy on the side of the car? Their continually getting information?
9. The set-up with all the kids around London – the wide contacts, even the BBC? The preparation for Operation Seagull, the codeword?
10. Nightingale, presumptuous, with Rhona, reading the comic, finding Joe, the confrontation, not knowing the password?
11. The arrival of the crooks, tying Nightingale up, his later escape? The boys, the fight with the gangsters? The pursuit, Nightingale crashing the truck, the severity of the fight with Joe, his falling, Joe jumping on him?
12. The happy ending, the boys and something positive to do – and the police acclaiming their work? A period piece (even the boys wearing coats all the time)?
