London Town is a 1946 musical film, generally regarded as one of the most infamous flops in the history of British cinema.
The screenplay by Sig Herzig, Val Guest, and Elliot Paul, based on a story by director Wesley Ruggles, revolves around comedian Jerry Sanford (Sid Field), who arrives in London believing he has been hired as the star of a major stage production, when in fact he's merely an understudy. Thanks to his daughter Peggy (Petula Clark, already a screen veteran at age fourteen), who sabotages the revue's star Charlie de Haven (Sonnie Hale), he finally gets his big break. The premise allows for a variety of musical numbers and comedy sketches performed by, among others, Kay Kendall and Tessie O'Shea.
The critical and financial failure of the extravagant film, Britain's first major Technicolor musical, is part of British film legend. Financed by the Rank Organisation at a time of rationing and shortages of materials in the period immediately after World War II, it was filmed in the shell of "Sound City Shepperton," which had been made available as a film studio after being requisitioned during the war as a factory for aircraft parts. (The studio was later renamed Shepperton Studios and is still used for film production.)
Musical hall performer Field had cheered up wartime London audiences with his hugely successful stage variety shows, including Strike a New Note (1943), Strike it Again (1944), and Piccadilly Hayride (1946), so he seemed a natural for the lead. As he was of the opinion that no British director was capable of making a good musical, he insisted on having an American at the helm, and the task fell to Wesley Ruggles, who produced as well.
Given that Ruggles had no experience with the genre – his best-known films at that point were the Academy Award-winning Western epic Cimarron (1931) and the Mae West comedy I'm No Angel (1933), both more than a decade old – and his Hollywood career was on a downslide, he was an odd choice indeed.
J. Arthur Rank spent large sums of money for American songwriters (Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke), musicians (Ted Heath and his orchestra), and costumes by the legendary designer Orry-Kelly, while at the same time re-equipping the studio from the ground up. He was confident that box-office business was booming at the time and that demand for a flashy musical entertainment would be such that he would make a healthy profit, so his financial controls were slack.
So much was spent on production that the film needed to perform better than possible just to break even but, dismissed by critics (who described it as "tacky" and "tasteless") and ignored by audiences, it was a legendary flop. In hindsight however, especially for nostalgia fans, many of its kitschy aspects make it fascinating, and film historians consider it an interesting record of the times in which it takes place. Following Britain's victory in the war, it can be seen as a tribute to London and its residents, and as a celebration of popular Cockney culture, especially its music hall traditions.
Songs in London Town include "You Can't Keep a Good Dreamer Down", "The 'Ampstead Way" (most definitely inspired by "The Lambeth Walk" from the earlier stage production Me and My Girl), "Any Way the Wind Blows", a medley of Cockney songs ("Knock 'em in the Old Kent Road"/"Any Old Iron"/"Follow the Van"), and "My Heart Goes Crazy," which was the title under which an abridged U.S. version of the film was released by United Artists in 1953.
Oddly Clark, who had started her career singing for the troops on the BBC, performed in none of the film's musical numbers. In September 2006, the film's soundtrack - plus bonus tracks including four early studio recordings by Clark - was released on CD by Sepia Records.
The original three-hour version, which never was released commercially, is now available for viewing at the archives at the BFI Southbank [1].
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