The George Formby Film Collection [DVD] [2009]

Product Information

I'm just a clown without the make-up, the circus clown who magnifies the reactions of ordinary people to the things that happen around them". Sweet, Matthew (2006). Shepperton Babylon: The Lost Worlds of British Cinema. London: Faber & Faber. p.137. ISBN 978-0-571-21298-9.

Although Formby had already made two moderately successful films ( Boots! Boots! and Off the Dole), No Limit was the film that put him on the road to stardom. You know, some of the songs are a bit near. But they'll take them from me in evening dress; they wouldn't take them if I wore baggy pants and rednose".Bell Bottom George (1944)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009 . Retrieved 10 March 2014. Formby and Desmond disliked each other, with Formby calling her a "snotty-nosed little minx"; she thought he was a "dreadful, slobbering little oaf". [40] During the Second World War Formby worked extensively for the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), and entertained civilians and troops, and by 1946 it was estimated that he had performed in front of three million service personnel. After the war his career declined, although he toured the Commonwealth, and continued to appear in variety and pantomime. His last television appearance was in December 1960, two weeks before the death of Beryl. He surprised people by announcing his engagement to a school teacher, Pat Howson, seven weeks after Beryl's funeral, but died in Preston three weeks later, at the age of 56; he was buried in Warrington, alongside his father. Off the Dole (1935)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 18 September 2010 . Retrieved 10 March 2014.

The success of the pictures led Dean to offer Formby a seven-year contract with ATP, which resulted in the production of 11 films, [14] although Dean's fellow producer, Michael Balcon, considered Formby to be "an odd and not particularly loveable character". [46] The first film from the deal was released in 1935. No Limit features Formby as an entrant in the Isle of Man annual Tourist Trophy (TT) motorcycle race. Monty Banks directed, and Florence Desmond took the female lead. [47] [f] According to Richards, Dean did not try "to play down Formby's Lancashire character" for the film, and employed Walter Greenwood, the Salford-born author of the 1933 novel Love on the Dole, as the scriptwriter. [1] Filming was troubled, with Beryl being difficult to everyone present. The writer Matthew Sweet describes the set as "a battleground" because of her actions, and Banks unsuccessfully requested that Dean bar Beryl from the studio. [48] The Observer thought that parts of No Limit were "pretty dull stuff", but the race footage was "shot and cut to a maximum of excitement". Regarding the star of the film, the reviewer thought that "our Lancashire George is a grand lad; he can gag and clown, play the banjo and sing with authority... Still and all, he doesn't do too bad." [49] The film was so popular it was reissued in 1938, 1946 and 1957. [43] The Times critic wrote in 1940: "the structure of Mr. George Formby's films do not alter very much, and the same blue-print that has done serviceable work in the past was taken out of its drawer for Spare a Copper". [3]Bret goes as far as to call Formby and Howson "soul-mates", although he points out that "just how far their relationship progressed beyond the platonic is not known". [170] ENSA had been formed in 1938, [76] although the formation was actually a re-formation, as the organisation had been active during the First World War. [77] Aldgate, Anthony; Richards, Jeffrey (1994). Britain Can Take It: The British Cinema in the Second World War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-0508-8.

Mistakenly Formby's character lays himself open to a bribe by stating that he "wouldn't ride again for fifty quid", a bribe which Turner is happy to pay, and ensures such by taking the Shuttleworth Snap up to the Marine Drive where Formby's character rides it over a cliff. MacFarlane, Thomas (2007). The Beatles' Abbey Road Medley: Extended Forms in Popular Music. Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-1-4617-3659-2. Richards, Jeffrey (2010). The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in 1930s Britain. London: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84885-122-1.No Limit (1935)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009 . Retrieved 10 March 2014. Turned out nice again as research bears fruit". Eastern Daily Press. Norwich. 8 October 2011. p.21. Insley, Jill (31 July 2010). "Work: A working life: The ukulele teacher: Strummer loving: Lorraine Bow was an events manager until she lost her heart to a 'four-stringed beast'. Now she runs her own business giving lessons, she tells Jill Insley". The Guardian. London. p.3. An eager-to-please show business agent hires a more capable singer in the place of an untalented opera performer. Napper, Lawrence. "Dean, Basil (1888–1978)". Screenonline. British Film Institute . Retrieved 19 June 2014.

Centenary of the Borough of Douglas 1896-1996 Gordon N.Kniverton The Manx Experience pp109 ISBN 1-873120-21-4 George Perry wrote in "Forever Ealing", "the notion of unsuspected German spies in respectable positions was to recur in more serious Ealing films such as The Foreman Went to France and Went the Day Well? These comedy films were judged as very good for public morale at the time while delivering an important message." [5] An employee at an underwear factory struggles to keep both his modern wife and his battle-axe mother in domestic bliss. A prop man with a touring ice ballet invents a new mini camera concealed in a bow-tie. He inadvertently takes a compromising photo of a crook at work. Keep Your Seats Please (1936)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009 . Retrieved 10 March 2014.

Formby has been the subject of five biographies as of 2014. In the late 1960s Harry Scott published his reminiscences of Formby, The Fabulous Formby, in 14 issues of The Vellum, the magazine of the George Formby Society; [222] [y] John Fisher published George Formby in 1975 before Alan Randall and Ray Seaton published their book in 1974 and David Bret produced George Formby: A Troubled Genius in 1999. [224] [225] The last of the five to be published was by Sue Smart and Richard Bothway Howard in 2011, It's Turned Out Nice Again!. [226] There have also been two documentaries on British television, an edition of The South Bank Show in 1992, and Frank Skinner on George Formby in 2011. [227] Richards, Jeffrey (2010). The Age of the Dream Palace: Cinema and Society in 1930s Britain. I.B. Tauris. p. 198. ISBN 9781848851221. Kershaw, Baz (2007). Theatre Ecology: Environments and Performance Events. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-87716-9. Burton, Alan; O'Sullivan, Tim (2009). The Cinema of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3289-3. Womaniser! Depressive! Junkie! By George!; The Bitter Battle for the Memory of One Man and His Little Ukulele". The Independent. London. 22 June 1999. pp.1 & 8.