I Didn't Do It

Everyone in this film is funnier and more effective than Formby who could be replaced by any other comedian here.

This is basically Ian Fleming's, Gaston Palmer and Marcel Varnel's film who all deserve greater credit for propping Formby up. The theatrical and seedy boarding house backgrounds are also well achieved as are the out of work actors' love for their work.

This tightly plotted story about how George gets involved in a murder as a suspect and victim is efficiently directed, as one would expect from a farce with Marcel Varnel at the helm. However, George Formby's usual charm is largely absent from this movie. Part of the reason is that some of the plot is put into motion by George's lies. But, the majority of the distaste I have is that George's goal is to be a star on the stage, which he is evidently unfitted for. In other movies his goals are ones he can obviously attain, once given an opportunity: to win an auto race or become a newspaper photographer. Not here: George, in the body of the story, anyway, is blissfully free from talent.

But Varnel's style of story is cut-glass farce: his best work was with Will Hay and the Crazy Gang. George Formby's appeal lay in other directions and although he can carry out standard farce, it's a waste for him to do so, like sitting Frank Sinatra down at a piano and telling him to play. George does get to perform three songs, including one of his better ones, "He Was Such a Daring Young Man." Also giving a good performance is Ian Fleming as an unflappable police inspector, but they can't really make this a good movie.

George (George Formby) moves into a theatrical boarding house and tries to raise money for a theatrical production, but soon finds himself the chief suspect of one of the house residents.

A late Formby vehicle has its moments and energy, but is less funny than his earlier films.

The fact that there at least 5 writers on this, George's penultimate film,shows that they were running out of ideas.Some of the set piece scenes,such as that with psychoanalyst, and that with the murderer.These are laugh free zones.This type of film simply didn't suit George.By the way Caryl and Munday were music hall artists who featured at the Lonion Palladium in the first Crazy Week which eventually became the Crazy Gang.

George Formby struggled to remain relevant after the war, and soon wisely quit films. The warm-hearted pre-war farces at which he excelled were followed by his enjoyable wartime flagwavers, but it quickly became clear that George wouldn't be able to cut it again in Civvy Street, as styles grew more realistic, and the competition was no longer the stagey quota quickies of the 30s, but harder-edged violent thrillers like Brighton Rock and No Orchids for Miss Blandish. I Didn't Do It was a game attempt to live in that world, but it simply doesn't work.

The sub-par casting doesn't help - Marjorie Browne is sweet but utterly forgettable, Jack Daly rather repellent, and Caryll & Mundy's style is too coarse to carry as much of the action as they do. The attention is naturally drawn by the experienced and talented actors playing the policemen and the villain. George is on good form, but one aches for the songs, of which we only get three, to arrive. However, She's Got Two of Everything is George at his best, and I'd Like a Dream Like That isn't bad either.

The main problem is the inordinate length. Padded out to 95 minutes, it should have ended quickly after about an hour. The whole final scene of the revue is superfluous, stupendously boring and only tangentially related to the solution of the crime.