Bell-Bottom George (1944) watch online HD

This was in the middle of Formby's Columbia period, all seven of them produced and directed by Frenchman Marcel Varnel as wartime flag-wavers for Britain's no.1 box office star. It was also (by the shortest of heads) the longest Formby film, and it shows in places – it didn't need padding out and yet it was, even to the very end.

George is a barman at the Senior Service Club, wants to get into the Navy and eventually gets mistakenly enrolled under the name of his mate Jim Benson. Whilst unsuccessfully trying to get out before he's found out he sings a few songs – Swim, little fish (in his bedroom), It serves you right (in the "B" Mess), If I had a girl like you (in the Sea Horse Restaurant), and Bell-bottom George (at the BBC) – falls in love and uncovers a nest of Quislings trying to blow up a Navy ship. George is George of course, his girl was the mysterious Anne Firth with the startling smile, and the film bristles with familiar faces for those of us who like this sort of thing. If they could all come back they'd have their work cut out for them with the number of Quislings at work today!

Not his best film or music, but even with the padding and plenty of corn I enjoy watching this one every time I trot it out. If you watched it all and didn't like it it jolly well serves you right!

George is an unwilling civilian during the war. When an enlisted friend switches clothes with him in order to go to a party, George finds himself mistakenly pressed into the navy, where he gets involved with pretty Ann Firth and caught up in a subplot involving German spies.

Varnel directed the last nine of George Formby's movies, and the collaboration shows its strains here. George's persona was that of the well-meaning, lower-class 'cheeky chappie' who seizes his infrequent, small opportunities and finally prevails, pausing every now and then to sing a song, accompanying himself on his ukulele -- actually an alto banjo. Varnel's specialty was as director of heartless farces with the Crazy Gang and the incomparable Will Hay. The result is a coarsening of George's character. Although Formby pulls it off, his character has lost some of his charm.

There is nothing so tedious as comedy that isn't funny, and for the first part of this film that was what I felt I was saddled with. Unfunny dialogue competes with pratfalls and very contrived plot mechanics, as George Formby does his bit for the war effort as an thoroughly incompetent club steward who is determined to get into the Navy. The songs aren't exactly immortal, either.

But it does improve, helped by George's undeniable charm, which shows through once the character is allowed to become a little more resourceful and stop falling on his face every five minutes; by the end of the film, you can actually credit that the spick-and-span heroine might have fallen in love with him. And it's a decent part for the girl as well, as she gets to boss her beau around, represent the Navy against his impostor, and ultimately save the day via her naval training. Once the very obvious contrivances at the beginning of the plot are out of the way, it manages to become first amusing and then intriguing -- this is never going to be top-class Formby, but it's worth hanging on a bit, as it gets better as it goes along.