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Flight from Folly

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Flight from Folly
Directed byHerbert Mason
Written byLesley Storm
Katherine Strueby
Edmund Goulding
Basil Woon
Produced byHerbert Mason
StarringPat Kirkwood
Hugh Sinclair
CinematographyOtto Heller
Music byBenjamin Frankel
Eric Spear
Edmundo Ros
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Brothers
First National Pictures
Release date
  • 21 May 1945 (1945-05-21) (United Kingdom)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£139,921[1]
Box office£77,096[1]

Flight from Folly is a 1945 British musical comedy film directed and produced by Herbert Mason, in his last directorial credit before moving onto production, for Warner Bros.[2] The cast includes Pat Kirkwood, Hugh Sinclair and Tamara Desni and with music from Edmundo Ros and the Rumba Band. An unemployed showgirl impersonates a nurse and undertakes the job of looking after a composer and playwright abandoned by his Russian wife. The story was written by Lesley Storm, Katherine Strueby and Edmund Goulding. The film was distributed by Warner Brothers and First National Pictures.

Kirkwood had appeared in minor roles in four films between 1938 and 1940 before focussing her career on the West End stage, where she had become a major star during the war years. Flight from Folly was designed to give Kirkwood her first starring screen role, with the hope of breaking her out as a big-name film attraction.

Flight from Folly was released to cinemas in the United Kingdom on 21 May 1945.

The film is currently missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's 75 Most Wanted lost films.[3]

Plot

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When his muse and girlfriend Nina (Tamara Desni) takes off with a continental lothario, composer and playwright Clinton Clay (Sinclair) is devastated and turns to drink for solace. His doctor (Sydney Howard) tries, with the help of Clinton's butler Neville (A. E. Matthews), to get him to pull himself together but all attempts fail as Clinton's behaviour becomes ever more unbalanced and every nurse they engage is sent on her way by him in quick order.

Showgirl Sue Brown (Kirkwood) is currently out of work, hears of Clinton's problems and poses as a nurse. She is taken on to be his keeper, and manages to placate him to the extent that he does not dismiss her. When Clinton decides to travel to Majorca in pursuit of Nina, Sue is included in the party along with Neville and Clinton's sculptor sister Millicent (Jean Gillie). Harriet (Marian Spencer), a devious widow with designs on Clinton, follows them to Majorca.

Once on the island, Clinton tracks Nina down and asks her to star in a tryout of a new musical he has written. She agrees, and Clinton makes arrangements to stage the musical there. On opening night however, the jealous Harriet locks Nina in her dressing room and disappears with the key. Sue offers to take Nina's place on stage, and proves to be a huge success with the audience. Clinton realises that he has fallen in love with her and is instantly cured of his malaise, happy now to let Nina go with her playboy lover.

Cast

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Production

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It was the last film made at Warner's Teddington Studios before it was bombed in 1944.[4]

Reception and later history

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Flight from Folly received a generally muted critical reception, with a degree of agreement that the cast, in particular Kirkwood herself, were better than the material they had to work with. The Daily Mail described the film as "a tremulous but definite step towards a school of British Musicians."[5] The Manchester Guardian called the film "unworthy of [Kirkwood's] limited but genuine talent" which "promises better work in better films".[6] The Daily Mirror however found the film a "neatly made and tuneful comedy" with praise for Kirkwood's "vivacious personality and talent".[6] The film's set designs, costuming and make-up provoked criticism from a number of reviewers.[6]

There is no indication of what happened to the film after its original cinema run in 1945. The film does not appear ever to have been shown on television, and attempts to track down a print have so far proved fruitless. Also, the film is not held in the British Film Institute National Archive, is classed as "missing, believed lost", and is included on the BFI's "75 Most Wanted" list of missing British feature films.[6]

The film lost over £60,000.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Steve Chibnall (2019) Hollywood-on-Thames: the British productions ofWarner Bros. – First National, 1931–1945, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 39:4, 687-724, DOI: 10.1080/01439685.2019.1615292 at p 714
  2. ^ Quinlan, 1984, p. 208
  3. ^ "BFI Most Wanted". bfi.org.uk. BFI. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  4. ^ McFarlane, 2005, p. 462
  5. ^ Adrian Wright (2020). Cheer Up! British Musical Films, 1929-1945. United Kingdom: Boydell Press. p. 318.
  6. ^ a b c d "Flight From Folly / BFI Most Wanted". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2010.

Bibliography

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  • Quinlan, David. (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928-1959. BT Batsford Ltd
  • Wright, Adrian. (2020). Cheer Up! British Musical Films, 1929-1945. Boydell Press
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