Kurt at 21:35, 13 March 2023

2023-03-13T21:35:46Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:35, 13 March 2023
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	* [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/back_room_boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at [[Rotten Tomatoes]]		* [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/back_room_boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at [[Rotten Tomatoes]]

	~~{{Gainsborough Pictures}}~~
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Kurt at 22:51, 6 February 2023

2023-02-06T22:51:07Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:51, 6 February 2023
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	~~{{short description\|1942 film}}~~
	~~{{Use dmy dates\|date=June 2016}}~~
	~~{{Use British English\|date=June 2016}}~~
	{{Infobox film		{{Infobox film
	\| name ~~= Back-Room Boy~~		\| name =
	~~\| image_size~~ =		\| image = Back-Room Boy.jpg
	\| image = Back-Room Boy ~~FilmPoster~~.~~jpeg~~		\| caption =
	\| caption = ~~DVD cover, with Withers in the centre and Askey at the far right~~
	\| director = [[Herbert Mason]]		\| director = [[Herbert Mason]]
	\| producer = [[Edward Black (producer)\|Edward Black]]		\| producer = [[Edward Black (producer)\|Edward Black]]
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	* [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/back_room_boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at [[Rotten Tomatoes]]		* [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/back_room_boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at [[Rotten Tomatoes]]

	~~{{Herbert Mason}}~~
	{{Gainsborough Pictures}}		{{Gainsborough Pictures}}
	~~{{Marriott Edgar}}~~

	[[Category:1942 films]]		[[Category:1942 films]]
	[[Category:1940s spy comedy films]]		[[Category:1940s spy comedy films]]

Kurt: 1 revision imported

2023-02-06T17:40:35Z

1 revision imported

← Older revision	Revision as of 12:40, 6 February 2023
(No difference)

en>Pdebee: Restored revision 1108304134 by Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk): Reverted myself.

2022-12-20T13:45:12Z

Restored revision 1108304134 by Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk): Reverted myself.

New page

{{short description|1942 film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Back-Room Boy
| image_size =
| image = Back-Room Boy FilmPoster.jpeg
| caption = DVD cover, with Withers in the centre and Askey at the far right
| director = [[Herbert Mason]]
| producer = [[Edward Black (producer)|Edward Black]]
| story = [[J.O.C. Orton]]
| screenplay = [[Marriott Edgar]] [[Val Guest]] [[J.O.C. Orton]]
| narrator =
| starring = [[Arthur Askey]] [[Moore Marriott]] [[Graham Moffatt]]
| music = [[Hans May]]
| cinematography = [[Jack E. Cox]]
| editing = [[R. E. Dearing]]
| studio = [[Gainsborough Pictures]]
| distributor = [[General Film Distributors]]
| released = {{Film date|1942|4|17|United Kingdom|1947|02|10|Sweden|df=y}}
| runtime = 82 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English German
| budget =
}}
'''''Back-Room Boy''''' is a 1942 British comedy film directed by [[Herbert Mason]], produced by [[Edward Black (producer)|Edward Black]] for [[Gainsborough Pictures]] and starring [[Arthur Askey]], [[Googie Withers]], [[Graham Moffatt]] and [[Moore Marriott]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iux6eL3lnr8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/Iux6eL3lnr8 |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Back Room Boy 1942|publisher=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The original story was written by J.O.C. Orton. A man from the [[Met Office]] is sent to a lighthouse on a remote Scottish island to monitor the weather, where he hopes to escape from women, but soon finds the island overrun by them.

==Plot==
[[Meteorologist]] Arthur Pilbeam's fiancée Betty breaks their engagement because he does not spend enough time with her due to having to attend at the BBC every hour, on the hour, for his internationally vital job of creating the [[BBC pips]]. He is so upset, he uses the pips to play "[[Shave and a Haircut]]". When he is reprimanded, he tries to resign, but he is not allowed do that during wartime, so, when he says he wants to avoid all women, he is posted to a remote [[Scotland|Scottish]] [[lighthouse]] to make weather reports. Before taking a boat from the mainland, his is warned by the locals that he will go mad from the isolation and the curse of a [[mermaid]] within a month, as his predecessors have. He still goes to the island, but as soon as he lands he is disturbed as most of his baggage disappears.

But then Pilbeam encounters Jane, a young girl who [[stowaway|stowed away]] on the boat that brought him to the island, and then Bobbie, a model and the sole survivor of a torpedoed ship. His radio disappears, and Bobbie sees a man tied up in a cupboard, but he disappears when she shows Pilbeam. Then she is attacked, but her assailant is also nowhere to be seen when Pilbeam returns. Finally, another boatload of women plus some crewmen arrive from Bobbie's ship. This makes it very crowded in the lighthouse, until people start to mysteriously disappear during the night, leaving an anxious Pilbeam trying to discover what has happened to everyone, until finally, only Pilbeam is left.

It turns out that Nazi agents have been secretly sweeping the nearby waters of mines and have taken everyone else prisoner, leaving Pilbeam free just so he can send away a rescue party without arousing suspicion. But between Pilbeam, Jane's uncle (from the neighbouring island) and the women, they manage to turn the tables on their captors. They tie the Germans up and set out on the German boat. On the way back to the mainland, however, they come across an enemy warship in the fog. The Germans mistake them for their own spies and order them to guide them through the minefield. Their small boat is able to avoid the mines but the ship strikes a mine and sinks.

Pilbeam returns to London a hero, to find Betty has been given his old job on the pips. Having apparently rebuffed him, she plays "Shave and a Haircut" and he rushes off to see her.

==Cast==
* [[Arthur Askey]] - Arthur Pilbeam
* [[Moore Marriott]] - Jerry
* [[Graham Moffatt]] - Albert
* [[Googie Withers]] - Bobbie
* [[Vera Frances]] - Jane
* [[Joyce Howard]] - Betty
* [[John Salew]] - Steve Mason
* [[George Merritt (actor)|George Merritt]] - Uncle
* [[Aubrey Mallalieu]] (uncredited) - West
* [[D. J. Williams (actor)|D. J. Williams]] (uncredited)- McIntyre

==Production==
Arthur Askey replaced [[Will Hay]] when Hay moved from Gainsborough to [[Ealing Studios]] before the Second World War.<ref>Mayer, 2003, p. 16</ref> Filming took place at Gaunt-British Studios, [[Lime Grove Studios]] and [[Shepherd's Bush]], London, England.

==Reception==
In his book about 1940s British cinema, ''Realism and Tinsel'', Robert Murphy describes the film as "the funniest if the least original of the Askey comedies".<ref>Murphy p.196</ref> ''Halliwell's Film Video & DVD Guide'' describes the film as a "[fairly] spirited star comedy of interest as a shameless rip-off of ''The Ghost Train'' and ''[[Oh Mr Porter!]]''."<ref>Walker, 2004, p. 55</ref> In ''Beacons in the Dark'', film historian Robyn Ludwig critiques the film as "symptomatic of homophobic and chauvinistic undercurrents in Great Britain during the war".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://governmentcheese.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11:beacons-in-the-dark-lighthouse-iconography-in-wartime-british-cinema&catid=11&Itemid=111|title=Beacons in the Dark: Lighthouse Iconography in Wartime British Cinema (1941-1942)|website=Governmentcheese.ca}}</ref> David Parkinson in [[Radio Times]] said, "The main problem is the film's insistence on hammering home every gag, with Askey particularly at fault."<ref name = RadioTimes >{{cite web |author1=David Parkinson |title=Back Room Boy (1942) |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-gt6ffo/back-room-boy/ |website=radiotimes.com |publisher=RadioTimes.com |access-date=18 May 2022}}</ref> However, he praised the subsidiary action between Moffatt and Marriott and Googie Withers' performance.<ref name = RadioTimes />

==Home media==
''Back-Room Boy'' was released on [[DVD]] on 19 February 2007. The film was also released in the Arthur Askey Collection box set on DVD in 2007 in the United Kingdom, followed by another edition in 2012.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Mayer, Geoff. (2003). ''Guide to British Cinema.'' Greenwood Publishing Group
* Murphy, Robert. (1989). ''Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain, 1939-1949''. Routledge
* Walker, John. (ed). (2004). ''Halliwell's Film Video & DVD Guide 2004.'' [[HarperCollins]] Entertainment. 19th edition

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0034488|Back-Room Boy}}
* {{BFI Explore|id=4ce2b6a46729b|title=Back-Room Boy}}
*{{Internet Archive film | BACKROOMBOYVideoQualityUpgrade | Back-Room Boy }}
* [https://www.parkcircus.com/film/104117-Back-Room-Boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at [[Park Circus (company)|Park Circus]]
* [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/back-room-boy-v84264 ''Back-Room Boy''] at [[AllMovie]]
* [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/back_room_boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at [[Rotten Tomatoes]]

{{Herbert Mason}}
{{Gainsborough Pictures}}
{{Marriott Edgar}}

[[Category:1942 films]]
[[Category:1940s spy comedy films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:British spy comedy films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Herbert Mason]]
[[Category:Films set in Scotland]]
[[Category:Gainsborough Pictures films]]
[[Category:Films shot at Lime Grove Studios]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Marriott Edgar]]
[[Category:World War II films made in wartime]]
[[Category:1942 comedy films]]
[[Category:1940s British films]]

Back-Room Boy - Revision history

Kurt at 21:35, 13 March 2023

Kurt at 22:51, 6 February 2023

Kurt: 1 revision imported

en>Pdebee: Restored revision 1108304134 by Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk): Reverted myself.