The Galloping Major

Interesting look at a bygone era of the early 50's in the London district of Lambs Green. But today we still love the GG's just like then. Some things never change. I was amazed at the way the bookies communicated with their colleagues in the stands (all line of sight). The film "dry rot" also showed them communicating odds with arm movements - fascinating, I've no idea what they were 'saying'. Seeing the old double decker buses brings back memories. They also had some real old buses that looked prewar as well. Lots of familiar British actors like Basil Radford playing the major and Joyce Grenville and Jimmy Hanley. Not a laugh out loud comedy more a comical drama post- Ealing production that apparently was based on an idea by the actor playing the Major. You can also catch sight of the 'Carry On' star Charles Hawtrey in a bit part. This film runs the gauntlet of emotions when bets of all sorts are involved. Just enjoy the ride and races.

The comedies of Henry Cornelius are reliable for their genuinely good humour prevalent in all the mass of actors, and in his films they tend to gather in cheerful crowds. The point here is that all the successes happen by accident, nothing is really intended, Basil Radford runs a pet shop, nothing else, while Hugh Griffith comes haunting him for his debts, and it looks rather bleak from the start in a dreary neighbourhood as well. But Basil has a daughter, and she is the sunshine of the film, inspiring everyone with exhilaration in spite of some accidents on the way. They buy a horse, and it's the wrong one, it runs away and is painted in irrecognizable colours, it is transported far away from London, and so it goes - the race is on, and ends in the same style, in total apparent defeat, which by accident is turned to the opposite, but not without some nerve-racking business on the way - Hugh Griffith himself has to be ultimately carried out on a stretcher. But the good humour conquers all, and it's a hell of a merry-go-round, risking never to stop in its whirling bolting in further mishaps, but ultimately you will end up as cheerful as any of all the hundreds of actors in the syndicate for racing an impossible horse.

The films directed by Henry Cornelius can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Passport to Pimlico (1948) -- one of Britain's most successful comedies -- The Galloping Major (1951) -- Genevieve (1953) -- possibly Britain's number one combined box office and critical success for the year -- I Am a Camera (1955) -- which failed to fill audiences with enthusiasm but nonetheless provoked the ire of the censor and thus became a top money-maker by default -- and finally Next To No Time (1957) which failed dismally even though it starred Kenneth More and was deliberately kept back from release until More scored a major triumph with A Night To Remember.

So how does The Galloping Major fare in this line-up? Very well, in my opinion. It has a lively script with several very ingenious touches. I love his moral-ground introduction in which A.E. Matthews lays down the law to our hopeful hero, but in the very next scene we discover that his motivation is more than somewhat curdled. The same goes for the introductory and following scenes featuring Hugh Griffith.

All the players bar one are at the top of their form. True, Kenneth More has little to do and doesn't really look the film director type; but the big letdown is Raymond Glendenning who hogs the camera so avidly, it seems like he's never going to let go! For a while there, it seems like Cornelius is going to make a thing of double-decker buses. This doesn't follow through, but happily, transport is certainly one of the main items on his agenda.

In all, despite Gendenning and an adequate but not exactly overly charismatic hero, plus a few slow patches here and there, The Galloping Major is a British character-filled delight.

Basil Radford is a fine judge of horseflesh, but he has no interest in betting. He wants to own a racehorse. He forms a syndicate to do so in his quiet London neighborhood of Lamb's Green, and they buy the wrong horse. Nothing loath, they train it anyway.... for the Grand National.

Henry Cornelius follows up his classic PASSPORT TO PIMLICO with another movie about the peculiar madness of the English. Although it lacks the general insanity of his better known picture, it has the funniest horse race I've ever seen on celluloid. With Jimmy Hanley, Rene Ray, Joyce Grenfell, and A.E. Matthews.

This is a very silly fantasy, but also a very enchanting view of the early fifties not as they really were but as we wish they were. In reality, the early post war years in Britain were austere and bleak, and films such as this would have cheered people up just by it's absurdness and innocence. It is very well acted and all of the cast seem to have entered into the spirit of taking part in this film just for the fun of taking part.