Jumping for Joy ** (1956, Frankie Howerd, Stanley Holloway, A E Matthews, Tony Wright, Alfie Bass, Joan Hickson, Lionel Jeffries) – Classic Movie Review 9482

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s agreeable, if underpowered 1955 British black and white comedy Jumping for Joy rests solidly on the charms of its young star Frankie Howerd.

If you enjoy Frankie’s unique brand of naughty but nice jokes then this story of a dismissed dog-track worker called Willie Joy (Howerd) who gets hold of a poorly championship greyhound and enters it in a major race, and then foils a gang of race-fixing, canine-drugging crooks, should provide an attack of the titters.

An avalanche of extravagant British comedy players makes up the cast but unexpectedly, they all work, as they should, in the star’s shadow. However, there are three noble comic performances to add to Howerd’s: Stanley Holloway as conman Captain Montague, and A E Matthews and Joan Hickson as Lord and Lady Cranfield, the oddball local gentry who help Willie Joy (Howerd) to win the big race, clear his name and get his job back. Plus there is a tuneful Larry Adler score.

Also in the cast are Tony Wright, Alfie Bass, Joan Hickson, Lionel Jeffries, Susan Beaumont, Terence Longdon, Colin Gordon, Richard Wattis, Danny Green, Barbara Archer, William Kendall, Ewen Solon, Reginald Beckwith, Bill Fraser, Michael Ward, Beatrice Varley, Andrew Faulds, Jack Lambert, Arthur Mullard, Frederick Treves, Ian Wilson, Charles Hawtrey, David Hannaford, John Warren and Tom Gill.

Jumping for Joy is written by Jack Davies and Henry E Blyth.

Howerd met his manager and partner Dennis Heymer in 1955 and they stayed together until Frankie’s death on April 19, 1992.

Willie Joy’s Lindy Lou racing greyhound was actually Moyshna Queen from Wandsworth Stadium.

The 1956 Jumping for Joy exhibitors’ campaign book.

Howerd appeared in The Runaway Bus (1954), The Ladykillers (1955), Further Up the Creek (1958), The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery (1966), Carry On Doctor (1967), Carry on Up the Jungle (1970) and The House in Nightmare Park (1973).

Jumping for Joy is directed by John Paddy Carstairs, runs 91 minutes, is made by The Rank Organisation, is released by Rank, is written by Jack Davies and Henry E Blyth, is shot in black and white by Jack E Cox, is produced by Earl St John (executive producer) and Raymond Stross, is scored by Larry Adler, and is designed by Michael Stringer.

It was shot at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England.

It was released on DVD by Odeon Entertainment in 2011 in the UK.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9482

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