Friday, December 23, 2022

Movie review - "Ha'penny Breeze" (1950) ** (warning: spoilers)

 The first film from Don Sharp, who co-wrote and co-produced as well as starred. It's a DIY effort for its time - low budget but a big enough budget to cover studio filming and location work. Apparently he and his mate Frank Worth (who directed) came up with the idea by going to the location and writing a film about it.

So it's a tale about a little village where they used to sail but don't because it's unmanly compared to fishing or something. The plot is a little fuzzy - well, maybe dull more than fuzzy.

It's full of novelty, though. The photography is lovely, as is the location work. It does have a nice small town feel and is affectionate. 

Sharp plays an Aussie and there's lots of comments on the fact he's Australian (he and his friend were POWs together).  He's not really handsome enough for a leading man (mind you, neither is his co star Edwin Richfield) and he's a little awkward, but it's fun seeing Don Sharp in the lead of a film. Gwynneth Vaughan in Sharp's love interest, Richfield's sister.

The ending has Sharp walking off into the sunset whistling 'Road to Gundagai' which is cool. And there's reference to Australia beating England in the cricket which was sweet.

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