Saturday, July 11, 2020

Movie review - "The Great Game" (1953) **

Based on a stage play about football - specifically the British transfer system of the 1940s in soccer. So if you're into that you may get stuff that escaped me.

I got the basis - it's really a comedy with broadacting northerner James Hayten as a tin pot club president trying to entice a player who is marrying his secretary to his club.

There's a lot of blustering northern accents. Geoffrey Toone is irritating as a perfect sort of soccer person - "we've got to develop talent, give people trades". The cast includes people like John Laurie and Thora Hird but the best was Doris Doris, in a small role despite her billing as Hayten's minxy secretary. She gets decent screen time in the opening but it fades. But she is fun with a mischievious twinkle - a film about Hayter sending her out to seduce players would have been better.

As a cricket fan I loved how Hayter at the end got excited about cricket and thought up ideas - exhibition games, cricket on ice, etc. I would have liked that movie more than this.

As with Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? I've got to say that director Maurice Elvey keeps the pot boiling. It's just weak material.

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