So says the headline on the front cover of To-Days Cinema of 16 August 1954.

Two of these films I know very well – The Blue Peter with Keiron Moore and The Love Match with Arthur Askey which must rank as one of my all time favourite comedy films.

The Blue Peter was filmed mainly in Snowdonia and centred around an outward bound school. The young men in the film all seem to have been in the TV Billy Bunter series as pupils at Greyriars

The film itself was made in Tecnicolor and Cinemascope.

Keiron Moore and Harry Fowler – The Blue Peter 1955

The climax of the film came when one boy slips down a cliff and has to be rescued by another of them who himself is having to overcome a fear of heights due to  events in his childhood. The way his sequence was filmed was impressive on the wide screen as we, the audience, were looking down at the boy clinging to the sheer cliff face. I remember hardly daring to watch at the time and this sequence has certainly stuck with me.  If I ever think of this film I think of that shot –  looking down at the long drop to the valley below with the lad, arms outstretched, clinging to the rocks

Keiron Moore played one of the instructors and the female lead was Greta Gynt who by now was at the end of her film career. They were both quite good in the roles.

A young actor called John Charlesworth played the young man with the fear of heights who eventually comes good.  He had a busy career. He was in Scrooge with Alistair Sims, the Bunter series and many other film and TV appearances. Sadly he died in 1960 aged 24. There is scant biographical information available on John.

He was born John William Charlesworth on November 15th 1935 in Hull, Yorkshire, England.
He appeared in a large number of films during his young life. The most famous of these being the 1951 Alastair Sim vehicle ‘Scrooge’. Charlesworth played the role of Peter Cratchit.

On April 2nd 1960, John took his own life.  A very sad event for someone who seemed to have achieved such a lot in a short life.

Harry Fowler also was in this film playing a young man years younger than he would have been at the time but he looked ok in the role.

Now to THE LOVE MATCH

Arthur Askey was very lively in this role and he had a marvellous cast around him in Glenn Melvyn, Danny Ross, Thora Hird, Shirley Eaton and Rob Wilton.

Glenn Melvyn had written the story and played Arthur s sidekick working on the railways. Thora Hird was  Arthurs wife and the lovely Shirley Eaton his daughter who enters a dancing contest and teams up with Danny Ross who later becomes her boyfriend.  Arthur who is a train driver has borrowed money from the works holiday fund and needs his daughter to win the contest to get him out of trouble. It all ends well.

The comedian Rob Wilton is hilarious as a magistrate in a sequence where Arthur and Glenn appear in court following an incident at a football match when they are arrested for being abusive to the ref (William Franklyn) who later comes to lodge with Arthur and his wife.

Glenn Melvyn met Ronnie Barker in repertory theatre and gave the young actor his break into television, offering him a role in Im Not Bothered 1956. Glenn Melvyn worked a lot with Ronnie Barker in his younger days and it was Glenn who perfected the stutter in this film that Ronnie copied for Open All Hours a number of years later. Glenn Melvyn was apparently a very talented actor. He died in 1999.

We all know about Thora Hird and  Shirley Eaton was the girl painted all over in gold in the film Goldfinger.

Danny Ross was really funny in this and later played a lot with Jimmy Clitheroe both on radio and TV.

The Love Match is a wonderful and funny film and is available on DVD.

I am not sure though the the Headline 4 Box Office Certs proved to be the case as with The Love Match the Box Office figure totalled £174,500 – so not exaclt a blockbuster. Must have earned more in DVD sales !!!