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''Hello London'' is a 1960 colour
CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its cr ...
drama-documentary/promotional musical film directed by Sidney Smith and starring
Sonja Henie Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 – 12 October 1969) was a Norway, Norwegian figure skating, figure skater and film star. She was a three-time List of Olympic medalists in figure skating, Olympic champion (Figure skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics, ...
,
Michael Wilding Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...
,
Ronny Graham Ronny Graham (August 26, 1919 – July 4, 1999) was an American actor and theater director, composer, lyricist, and writer. Life and career Graham was born Ronald Montcrief Stringer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second of five children born ...
and
Eunice Gayson Eunice Elizabeth Sargaison (17 March 1928 – 8 June 2018), known professionally as Eunice Gayson, was an English actress best known for playing Sylvia Trench, James Bond's love interest in the first two Bond films ('' Dr. No'' and '' From Russ ...
. It was written by Ken Englund, Herbert Sargent and George Fowler, and produced by Fowler. It was Henie's final film appearance, Norwegian figure skater and film star Sonja Henie is shown around London before taking part in a charity show. The film features songs, comedy routines and several sequences of Henie's extravagant ice-dance performances.


Plot

Sonja Henie arrives in London with her ''Stars on Ice'' touring company and after a show is asked to take part in a benefit concert the next evening in aid of the British Orphans Association. Her manager objects, because it would clash with a Paris engagement. Michael Wilding and Eunice Gayson kidnap him so he misses his plane, and take Henie to a nightclub and a bus tour around London, hoping to persuade her to do the show, which she does.


Cast

*
Sonja Henie Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 – 12 October 1969) was a Norway, Norwegian figure skating, figure skater and film star. She was a three-time List of Olympic medalists in figure skating, Olympic champion (Figure skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics, ...
as herself *
Michael Wilding Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...
as himself *
Ronny Graham Ronny Graham (August 26, 1919 – July 4, 1999) was an American actor and theater director, composer, lyricist, and writer. Life and career Graham was born Ronald Montcrief Stringer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second of five children born ...
as himself *
Eunice Gayson Eunice Elizabeth Sargaison (17 March 1928 – 8 June 2018), known professionally as Eunice Gayson, was an English actress best known for playing Sylvia Trench, James Bond's love interest in the first two Bond films ('' Dr. No'' and '' From Russ ...
as herself Rest of cast listed alphabetically: *
Dora Bryan Dora May Broadbent (7 February 1923 – 23 July 2014), known as Dora Bryan, was an English actress of stage, film and television.Roy Castle Roy Castle (31 August 1932 – 2 September 1994) was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. An accomplished jazz trumpet player, he could also play many other instruments. In a career as a versatile perfo ...
as himself *
Robert Coote Robert Coote (4 February 1909 – 26 November 1982) was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of ''My Fai ...
as himself *
Lisa Gastoni Lisa Gastoni (born 28 July 1935) is an Italian film actress. Gastoni was named "Best Italian Actress of the Year, 1966" as she received both the Nastro D'Argento Award and the Golden Globe Award from Italy's Foreign Press Association.} Biograp ...
as herself *
Charles Heslop Charles Heslop (8 June 1883 in Thames Ditton, England – 13 April 1966) was a British actor. His stage successes include a musical version of '' Tons of Money'', which toured Australia for Hugh J. Ward in 1924, co-starring Dot Brunton. ...
as himself *
Stanley Holloway Stanley Augustus Holloway (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles Stanley Holloway on stage and screen, on stage and screen, especially t ...
as himself * Oliver Johnston as himself * Trefor Jones as himself * Ruth Lee as woman *
Dennis Price Dennistoun John Franklyn Rose Price (23 June 1915 – 6 October 1973) was an English actor. He played Louis Mazzini in the Ealing Studios film ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949) and the omnicompetent valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptation ...
as himself *
Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor, known for his upper-middle class, macho image and his heavy-drinking, "hellraiser" lifestyle. His screen career spanned over 40 years, between 1955 and 1999. At the ...
as press photographer *
Joan Regan Joan Regan (born Joan E. Bethell; 19 January 1928 – 12 September 2013) was an English traditional pop singer, popular during the 1950s and early 1960s. Biography Joan E. Bethell was born in either Romford, Essex, or West Ham, London (sour ...
as herself


Songs

* "The Way to Make It Hip" – Roy Castle * "Do It for Me" – Roy Castle, Sonja Henie, Michael Wilding, Eunice Gayson * "On Top of a Bus" – Sonja Henie, Michael Wilding and company * "My Four British Tailors" – Ronny Graham, Dennis Price and Trefor Jones * "Petticoat Lane" – Stanley Holloway * "That Deadly Species the Male" – Dora Bryan * "Fly Alight Fancy and Free" – Sonja Henie and children * "The Truth of the Matter" – Dennis Price, Eince Gayson, Michael Wilding * "When You Know Someone Loves You" – Joan Regan * "The Magic of You" – Sonja Henie and company


Release

The British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
gives the film's release date as 20 October 1960. Other sources, such as ''The British 'B' Film, Melody in the Dark: British Musical Films, 1946–1972'' and ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'', cite 1958.


Critical reception

''
The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' wrote: "Why on earth it required three writers to produce this ingenuous concoction of ice spectacle, cabaret, music hall and an itinerary, culminating in a visit to the Battersea Fun Fair, which is nothing if not exhaustive, is something of a mystery. Michael Wilding and the rest, playing themselves, bring little more than an air of frantic gaiety to jokes and music that would scarcely have passed muster twenty years or more ago." ''
Kine Weekly ''Kinematograph Weekly'', popularly known as ''Kine Weekly'', was a trade paper catering to the British film industry between 1889 and 1971. Etymology The word Kinematograph was derived from the Greek ' Kinumai ', (to move, to be in motion, to ...
'' wrote: "The popular stars and guest artists seize their chances, but the direction and editing lack discipline. At once illuminating and entertaining, its prospects could, nevertheless, be immensely improved by drastic cutting. ... The picture slightly overdoes the 'variety' stuff before getting Sonja Henie and her company on the London bus, but the itinerary, culminating in a visit to the Battersea Fun Fair, is nothing if not comprehensive. Sonja Henie acts naturally and cuts delightful glacial capers as Sonja; and Michael Wilding, Eunice Gayson, Lisa Gastoni, Dennis Price, Stanley Holloway, Dora Bryan, Roy Castle and Joan Regan make their presence felt as themselves. There is more padding towards the finish, but the charity ice show finale glitters." In ''British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959'' David Quinlan rated the film as "poor", writing: "Heavily dated patchwork musical." Augusto Corrieri wrote in ''In Place of a Show:'' "The film was an economic flop and turned out to be the last of Sonja Henie's otherwise very successful ice skating-themed movies." Chibnall and McFarlane in ''The British 'B' Film'' called the film: "appalling." Adrian Wright, in ''Melody in the Dark: British Musical Films, 1946–1972'', writes:
Here is a vanity project by Henie, who planned the film as the first of many she would release wherever she rested her caravan around the globe, in effect what we might now understand as a promotional 'video' intended to boost attendance at her live ice extravaganzas. We must be thankful that the idea was realised with such enthusiasm, resulting in director Sidney Smith's hotchpotch of scenes set on London buses (a cramped location for some ridiculous choreography), in under-populated night-spots, at a gentlemen's outfitter in
Savile Row Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...
(one of its sales assistants is Welsh tenor Trefor Jones ...), at Battersea's funfair, and in protracted extracts from Ms Henie's ice show of the moment. Presumably, these routines are offered as the main course, but they are so uninventively filmed, and exposed in such cavernous spaces (you can almost feel cinemagoers wishing they'd brought a cardigan), that they fail to warm the spirits. The luxury of
Eastmancolor Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak. Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was o ...
and the expansiveness of Cinemascope do nothing to melt the glacial atmosphere. The permanently fixed smiles of delight on the faces of Wilding, with none of the charisma that sustained him through his long years as
Anna Neagle Dame Florence Marjorie Wilcox (''née'' Robertson; 20 October 1904 – 3 June 1986), known professionally as Anna Neagle, was an English stage and film actress, singer, and dancer. She was a successful box-office draw in British cinema for 2 ...
's on-screen lover, and Gayson, and the dialogue they are obliged to reiterate, remind us that actors must eat and will at times do just about anything for the money.


References


External links

* {{IMDb title, 0051715 1960 films Documentary films about London British documentary films 1960s English-language films 1960s British films English-language documentary films