Much Too Shy.

1942.  1 hour 32 minutes. Comedy.

Screenplay by: Walter Greenwood, Jack Marks

Director & Producer: Marcel Varnel

Production Company: Columbia British Productions

Distributed by: Columbia Pictures Corporation (UK)

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Players:

George Formby - George Andy

Kathleen Harrison - Amelia Peabody

Hilda Bayley - Lady Driscoll

Eileen Bennett - Jackie Somers

Joss Ambler - Sir George Driscoll

Jimmy Clithero - Jimmy

Frederick Burtwell - Mr Harefield

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Plot of the film:

George plays a handyman who wants to be an artist.  The trouble is he can only paint faces and not bodies.  He draws 3 ladies faces on a canvas of ladies he knows in his town, and without his knowledge, another artist paints nude ladies bodies under the heads!  Yes, they're in the buff!  Without George realising it, the painting gets sold to an advertising company and the painting ends up in the newspapers and all over town, much to everyone's horror!

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My thoughts on the film:

The jolly music which introduces the film makes you realise you are in for another treat starring George Formby.  George is a bashful character but with his usual uplifting and humorous songs.  Kathleen Harrison plays the very flirty postmistress, Amelia Peabody, trying to attract the attention of shop owner, Mr Harfield.  Jimmy Clithero is ever so good as George's little brother Jimmy.  He certainly keeps George in order.  He reminded me and Mrs T of our errand boy Sidney, although I have never heard Sidney say "show me a woman and I'll show you trouble."  Which is something Jimmy says throughout the film!

All in all, it is a most enjoyable film that will keep you cheery in these gloomy times.  I recommend you watch it, should it be shown in your vicinity.  It really did make us all chuckle.  Mrs Fazackalee thought it rather near and Mrs Tiplady thought it a bit smutty with the nude painting, but Enid & Norman pointed out that the painting was art!  The rest of us loved it though!

It had excitement, when George's caravan gets loose and charges through the country lanes, causing chaos at it escapes.  It has courtroom drama when the ladies in the painting sue George for damages, and it has romance, with George falling head over heels for Jackie Somers, beautifully played by Eileen Bennett.  The romance takes the entire film to blossom because, as George says, he is "Much Too Shy"! 

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