Film Snail

Elstree Calling
Elstree Calling

5.1

Elstree Calling

NR·1930·83m

Summary

A series of 19 musical and comedy "vaudeville" sketches presented in the form of a live television broadcast hosted by Tommy Handley (as himself).

Crew

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Director

André Charlot

Director

Jack Hulbert

Director

Paul Murray

Director, Writer

Adrian Brunel

Writer

Val Valentine

Writer

Walter C. Mycroft

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

August 29, 2022

5

A distinctly off-form Tommy Handley introduces this rather curious piece of cinematic entertainment that features a variety of stars from the British stage at the end of the 1920s. The mixture of musical, comedy and magical turns illustrates well just quite how a real pot-pourri of acts took to the stage in theatres up and down the UK - but there is no audience. Without the engagement, even applause, from those watching the whole thing comes across as a rather sterile collection of concert performances, as if filmed in an empty television studio. It has a couple of rather tenuous continuing threads that try to hold it together - one features a fellow with an elementary television trying, unsuccessfully usually, to catch some of the performance on his set. The other, has a more contrived Shakesperian theme to it that coupled with a lot of Handley's equally over-cooked links make this all rather a disjointed, and frankly rather staccato film to watch. As a curiosity, it is certainly worth a watch - but mainly just as a bit of nostalgia.

Media

No Videos to show.

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Keywords

tap dancing
black and white
vaudeville
shakespeare in modern dress
blackface
skit
variety show
xylophone player
russian song
part in color
music hall song
romantic song