LET GEORGE DO IT! (1940)

aka TO HELL WITH HITLER

In Bergen, Norway in the early days of WWII, the ukulele player for the Mark Mendes big band is shot to death by an unseen assassin during a nightclub performance. The British government is concerned because the man was a British spy trying to figure out if Mendes was actually a German agent who was somehow passing along information about British ship movements, leading to an increase of successful attacks by German U-boats. The Brits prepare to send a replacement agent, but during a blackout, hapless George Hepplewhite, a ukulele player for a small band called the Dinky-Doos, is mistaken for the agent and put on a ship to Bergen by accident. When Mary Wilson, a hotel receptionist who is actually a contact for British agents, discovers the mistake, the two work together and soon discover that Mendes is literally sending his messages in the music that his band broadcasts. George gets his hand on the code, but Mendes soon realizes what he's done, and plots to get rid of George the same way he got rid of the first ukulele player.

The plot sounds serious, but this is a comedy anchored by leading man George Formby, a very popular musician and comedian in England—he was for several years in the 1930s the highest paid entertainer in British films. He never broke out here; his persona, that of the naïve but lovable bumbler, is familiar (a little like a less manic Jerry Lewis) but his style is strictly British music hall, akin to American vaudeville which had gone out of favor in Hollywood films by the mid-30s. Formby mugs and tells mildly bawdy jokes and spends a big chunk of film time singing music-hall sing-along ballads which I couldn't always understand. One I did figure out is "Mr. Wu's a Window Cleaner Now" about a Chinese man who gives up his laundry business. Sample lyric: "He had his eyesight tested, a most important matter / Through a bathroom window, a lady he peeps at her / His eyesight's getting better but his nose is getting flatter / Cause Mr. Wu's a window cleaner now." The alternate title, To Hell with Hitler, comes from a dream sequence in which Formby drops into a Nazi rally and punches Hitler out. Otherwise, there is little real wartime content here, except for the threat to shipping which is the MacGuffin that drives the plot. Like many classic-era comics, Formby doesn't so much act as perform and he's generally tolerable—I admit I laughed every time someone asked who he was and he replied excitedly, "I'm a Dinky-Doo!" Phyllis Calvert is fine as the heroine, and it was fun to see a young Coral Browne (Vera Charles in Auntie Mame) as a sexy villain. I enjoyed this film but I admit I'm not in a big hurry to see more for Formby. BTW, the ukulele strumming you hear at the end of the Beatles' "Free as a Bird" is by Formby. [TCM]