Something Money Can’t Buy * (1952, Patricia Roc, Anthony Steel, A E Matthews, Moira Lister) – Classic Movie Review 13,559

The 1952 British comedy drama film Something Money Can’t Buy stars Patricia Roc, Anthony Steel, A E Matthews and Moira Lister. Director Pat Jackson recalled: ‘The script was charming but it needed great lightness of touch that I didn’t get.’

Director Pat Jackson’s 1952 British comedy drama film Something Money Can’t Buy stars Patricia Roc, Anthony Steel, A E Matthews, and Moira Lister.

Wife Anne Wilding (Patricia Roc) and her demobbed ex-army husband Captain Harry Wilding (Anthony Steel) are having trouble adjusting to civilian life and react to the post-war lethargy by trying to make money in the big, bad world of business. Her secretarial agency is a hit, and he starts a mobile catering firm that finally takes off too.

Something Money Can’t Buy is a thinly written and flabbily handled comedy that wastes the potential of its intriguing if contrived situations, though there are a few laughs along the way to its disappointingly reactionary ending. The direction lacks finesse and most of the performances fail to sparkle, though A E Matthews as Lord Haverstock is a bright spot, and Moira Lister pleases as Diana Haverstock. Roc and Steel are basically miscast and cannot show the easy-going comedy charm that their performances need.

Something Money Can’t Buy was made with backing from the National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) as part of its British Film-Makers project with the Rank Organisation. It was released in the UK on 9 July 1952 by Rank’s General Film Distributors and in the US by Universal Pictures in 1953.

It is shot at Pinewood Studios near London.

Roc had to return to London after two years in Paris, where she was living with her French cinematographer husband André Thomas. Allegedly, she had an affair with Steel during the making of the film, had a baby with him, and André Thomas accepted paternity of their son.

Pat Jackson recalled: ‘The script was charming. I think James Hodson and I wrote a nice script. But it needed great lightness of touch, which I didn’t get.’

The cast are Patricia Roc, Anthony Steel, A E Matthews, Moira Lister, David Hutcheson, Diane Hart, Michael Trubshawe, Charles Victor, Henry Edwards, Mary Hinton, Joss Ambler, D A Clarke-Smith, Mara Lane, John Barry, Dennis Arundell, Michael Brennan, Helen Goss, Joe Linnane, Oscar Quitak, Irene Prador, Johnnie Schofield, Olwen Brookes, and Margaret Vyner, Basil Dignam, Fred Griffiths, Ernie Rice, Avice Landone, and Dandy Nichols.

Something Money Can’t Buy is directed by Pat Jackson, runs 82 minutes, is made by Vic Films and British Film-Makers, is released by General Film Distributors (UK and Universal (US), is written by Pat Jackson and James Lansdale Hodgson, is shot in black and white by C Pennington-Richards, is produced by Joseph Janni, is scored by Nino Rota, and is designed by Alex Vetchinsky.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,559

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