Remake of a charming 1933 Jessie Matthews vehicle, in turn adapted from J.B. Priestley's then-current novella, this trifle about a traveling music hall troupe is inflated beyond its natural proportions and turned into a vehicle for up-and-coming Janette Scott, as Susie, the ambitious, supposedly wildly talented young thing pursuing fame while fighting off the advances of John Fraser, an unprepossessing juvenile. Some friendly people turn up-Joyce Grenfell, Celia Johnson, Eric Portman, Hugh Griffith, Anthony Newley-and the big musical numbers attempt a Hollywood-type lavishness. But the sad fact is, Janette Scott is neither much of a singer nor a dancer, and when you see the audience going mad for her modest warbling and stepping, you wonder why. She's sweet, with a Debbie Reynolds sort of innocence and chipperness, and she probably melted some British schoolboys' hearts. But she's nothing to mount a big musical around, and J. Lee Thompson, soon to inflict himself on Hollywood, is not a natural musical director. A couple of good sequences, and lots of touring-the-hinterlands atmosphere, but not much else.
Review of The Good Companions
