Midshipman Easy *** (1935, Hughie Green, Margaret Lockwood, Harry Tate, Roger Livesey) – Classic Movie Review 8104

The Napoleonic Wars are the background for the story in director Carol Reed’s eighteenth-century naval adventure in the 1935 movie Midshipman Easy [Men of the Sea in the US]. Hughie Green stars as the cocky young Jack Easy, who runs away to sea and joins the British Royal Navy as a cocky midshipman under the rule of a strict captain (Roger Livesey). He is keen to do well, but gets into various scrapes, and then he and his young mariner friends attempt to save a young lady (Margaret Lockwood) from some roguish Spaniard pirates.

This feisty, enjoyable, well-made adventure yarn proves to provide a full measure of excitement as it moves quickly along and packs lots of action into its short running time of just 70 minutes.

Personnel wise, it is interesting as an early apprentice work of British master director Reed, and it is well worth a look for that and also for the entertaining performances by the young Hughie Green (aged 16) as Midshipman Jack Easy and Margaret Lockwood, as Spanish grandee
Don Silvio’s beautiful daughter Donna Agnes, in her first lead role at 19. Roger Livesey also stars notably, as Captain Wilson.

The lively screenplay by Anthony Kimmins is based on the once famous and popular 1836 novel Mr Midshipman Easy by Captain Frederick Marryat.

Midshipman Easy was made at Ealing Studios in London by producer Basil Dean’s Associated Talking Pictures. Shot on a typically limited budget, it was a minor financial and critical success in Britain. It was finally released in the US by Astor Pictures in 1951, with Ernest Irving’s music replaced with a new score by Raoul Kraushaar.

When the film work petered out around 1950, Hughie Green headed for TV and later became a British national celebrity as the host of the TV series Double Your Money (1955-1968) and Opportunity Knocks (1956-1978).

The cliff top action and rocky shore scenes were shot on the Isle of Portland.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8104

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