A Girl in a Million ** (1946, Hugh Williams, Joan Greenwood, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne) – Classic Movie Review 10,880

Director Francis Searle’s 1946 comedy A Girl in a Million stars Joan Greenwood and Hugh Williams, features Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne in one of the 11 films they made together (notably Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes), and features another Hitchcock favourite, Wylie Watson, Mr Memory in The 39 Steps.

Williams plays research chemist Tony, who has gone through a nasty divorce because his first wife was a shrewish, nagging chatterbox, but thinks he is safe when he gets remarried to dumb and ditzy Gay Sultzman (Greenwood), a mute beauty. But then alas Greenwood is cured, and she can speak, and his troubles begin all over again.

Despite a jolly enough premise by Muriel Box and Sydney Box (original story and screenplay), this comedy remains resolutely lacklustre. But Greenwood’s delightful performance spearheads the game acting turns that just about save the day. The tasty support cast, especially the ever-droll Radford and Wayne, as Prendergast and Fotheringham, and Watson as their snooty butler Peabody, and Eileen Joyce’s recital of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto provide delicious diversions.

Radford and Wayne made 11 films together: Crook’s Tour, Dead of Night, Girl in a Million, It’s Not Cricket, The Lady Vanishes, Millions Like Us, Next of Kin, Night Train to Munich, Passport to Pimlico, Quartet, and Stop Press Girl.

Also in the cast are Yvonne Owen, Hartley Power, Garry Marsh, Michael Hordern, Jane Hylton, James Knight, Edward Lexy, Millicent Wolf, Charles Rolfe, Aubrey Mallalieu and Julian D’Albie.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,880

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