Will Any Gentleman...? (Original title)Reluctant Casanova (Alternative title)Will Any Gentleman (Help search title)
Date: 24 August 1953 (Release)Country: United KingdomDirector: Michael Anderson
Synopsis: Farce. Meek bank clerk Henry Stirling calls in to a theatre on an errand, is reluctantly persuaded by the manager to stay for the show and becomes hypotised by Mendoza, the stage hypnotist. In his new condition, Henry proves terribly bold, keeps kissing Mendoza's glamorous assistant Angel, knocks Mendoza over and makes his escape before he can be un-hypnotised. In the following days, with no memory of the stage act, Henry remains out of character, making passes at Beryl the maid, who rather enjoys his advances, handing out the bank's money with wanton largesse and eventually pinching £300 from the bank's safe. His condition comes only in waves, leaving him occasionally as himself and puzzled as to his bouts of outrageous behaviour. His patient but despairing wife Florence, his sponging brother Charley, his inept replacement doctor, his imposing mother-in-law Mrs Whittle, his boss Mr Jackson, a detective inspector and Charley's sweetheart Honey all become embroiled in the ever-zanier antics involving the recovery of the missing money, a decanter of fake whisky, foreign acrobats and assorted efforts to get Mendoza to end the spell of hypnosis.
Genre: Comedy
Subjects: Bankers, Hypnosis, Vaudeville
Releases
Date: 1953Country: United KingdomRelease type: unknownFormat: 35mm Film - Colour - Technicolor - SoundRuntime: 84 mins Length: 7560 FeetDialogue (original): English
Date: 24 August 1953 (Release)Country: United KingdomDirector: Michael Anderson
Synopsis: Farce. Meek bank clerk Henry Stirling calls in to a theatre on an errand, is reluctantly persuaded by the manager to stay for the show and becomes hypotised by Mendoza, the stage hypnotist. In his new condition, Henry proves terribly bold, keeps kissing Mendoza's glamorous assistant Angel, knocks Mendoza over and makes his escape before he can be un-hypnotised. In the following days, with no memory of the stage act, Henry remains out of character, making passes at Beryl the maid, who rather enjoys his advances, handing out the bank's money with wanton largesse and eventually pinching £300 from the bank's safe. His condition comes only in waves, leaving him occasionally as himself and puzzled as to his bouts of outrageous behaviour. His patient but despairing wife Florence, his sponging brother Charley, his inept replacement doctor, his imposing mother-in-law Mrs Whittle, his boss Mr Jackson, a detective inspector and Charley's sweetheart Honey all become embroiled in the ever-zanier antics involving the recovery of the missing money, a decanter of fake whisky, foreign acrobats and assorted efforts to get Mendoza to end the spell of hypnosis.
Genre: Comedy
Subjects: Bankers, Hypnosis, Vaudeville
Releases
Date: 1953Country: United KingdomRelease type: unknownFormat: 35mm Film - Colour - Technicolor - SoundRuntime: 84 mins Length: 7560 FeetDialogue (original): English
Credits
(43)
Presents: Associated British Picture Corporation Ltd., Distributed throughout the world by: Associated British-Pathe Limited, Produced by: Hamilton G. Inglis, Production Manager: Wilfrid G. Eades, Production Secretary: Sally Pennelegion, Assistant Director: Gordon Scott, 2nd Assistant Director: Frederic Goode, 3rd Assistant Director: Jeremy Summers, Continuity: June Faithfull, Casting Director: John Redway, Screenplay by: Vernon Sylvaine, From his play 'Will Any Gentleman?': Vernon Sylvaine, Director of Photography: Erwin Hillier, Technicolor Colour Consultant: Joan Bridge, Camera Operator: Norman Warwick, Focus Puller: Peter Allwork, Clapper Loader: Alan Bryce, Technicolor Technician: George Minassian, Stills: George Higgins, Editor: Max Benedict, 1st Assistant Editor: Allan Tyrer, 2nd Assistant Editor: Charles Crafford, 2nd Assistant Editor: Bill Prowse, Art Director: Terence Verity, Assistant Art Director: Tony Masters, Draughtsman: Peter Glazier, Make-up: L.V. Clark, Hair Styles: A.G. Scott, Colour by: Technicolor, Music by: Wally Stott, [Music] Played by: The Associated British Studio Orchestra, [Orchestra] Under the direction of: Louis Levy, Recording Director: Harold V. King, Sound Recordist: Leslie Hammond, Sound Camera Operator: Gordon Temple, Boom Operator: Danny Daniel, Boom Assistant: Colin Hopkins, Dubbing Crew: Len Shilton, Dubbing Crew: C. Brown, Leonard Abbott, Sound System: RCA Sound System, Made at: Associated British Elstree Studios
Cast
(28)
George Cole (Henry Stirling), Veronica Hurst (Florence Stirling), Jon Pertwee (Charley Stirling), James Hayter (Doctor Smith), Heather Thatcher (Mrs Whittle), William Hartnell (Detective Inspector Martin), Sidney James (Mr Hobson. theatre manager), Diana Decker (Angel, Mendoza's assistant), Joan Sims (Beryl, maid), Brian Oulton (Mr Jackson, bank manager), Alan Badel (Mendoza, stage hypnotist), Wilfred Boyle (Albert Boyle), Alexander Gauge (Mr Billing), Jill Melford (Honey), Josephine Douglas (doctor's receptionist), Diana Hope (blonde in bank), Martin Wyldeck (commissionaire), Richard Massingham (stout man in music hall), Peter Butterworth (stage manager), Wally Patch (boookmaker), Frank Birch (Mr Brown), Arthur Howard (Mr Coding), Lionel Jeffries (Mr Frobisher), Brian Wilde (1st clerk), Nan Braunton (neighbour), Lucy Griffiths (blonde on crossing outside bank), Harry Herbert (stage door keeper), Russ Allen (sporty type)