''Fiddlers Three'' is a 1944 British black-and-white musical comedy. It includes a number of musical sections, mainly focussing on replacing the word "home" with "

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

". The film was produced by

Michael Balcon Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in west London from 1938 to 1956. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film ...

and directed by

Harry Watt Raymond Egerton Harry Watt (18 October 19062 April 1987) was a Scottish documentary and feature film director, who began his career working for John Grierson and Robert Flaherty. His 1959 film '' The Siege of Pinchgut'' was entered into th ...

. The cast included

Tommy Trinder Thomas Edward Trinder (24 March 1909 – 10 July 1989) was an English stage, screen and radio comedian whose catchphrase was "You lucky people!". Described by Cultural history, cultural historian Matthew Sweet (writer), Matthew Sweet as "a cocky ...

Sonnie Hale John Robert Hale-Monro (1 May 1902 – 9 June 1959), known as Sonnie Hale, was an English actor, screenwriter, and director. Early life John Robert Hale-Monro was born in Kensington, London, the son of Belle Reynolds and actor Robert Hal ...

Frances Day Frances Day (born Frances Victoria Schenk; December 16, 1907April 29, 1984) was an American actress and singer who achieved great popularity in the UK in the 1930s. Her career began as a nightclub cabaret singer in New York City and London. ...

, Francis L. Sullivan,

Diana Decker Isabella Charlotte Diana Decker (9 January 1925 – 4 January 2019) was an American-born British actress, singer, and television personality, who was popular from the 1940s to the early 1960s. Early life Decker was born to an American father and ...

and

Elisabeth Welch Elisabeth Margaret Welch (February 27, 1904July 15, 2003) was an American singer, actress, and entertainer, whose career spanned seven decades. Her best-known songs were " Stormy Weather", " Love for Sale" and "Far Away in Shanty Town". She was ...

. Making their film debuts were

James Robertson Justice James Robertson Justice (15 June 1907 – 2 July 1975) was a British actor. He often portrayed pompous authority figures in comedies, including each of the seven films in the ''Doctor'' series. He also co-starred with Gregory Peck in seve ...

, and

Kay Kendall Justine Kay Kendall McCarthy (21 May 1927 – 6 September 1959) was an English actress and singer. She began her film career in the musical film ''London Town (1946 film), London Town'' (1946), a financial failure. Kendall worked regularly unti ...

near the bottom of the cast list, as the "Girl Who Asks About Her Future At Orgy". The film follows the adventures of two sailors and a

Wren Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...

who are struck by lightning and transported back to

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, where they are accepted as

seer A seer is a person who practices divination. Seer(s) or SEER may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Seer (band), an Austrian music band * Seer (game series), a Chinese video game and cartoon series ** ''Seer'' (film), 2011, based on the ...

s. The title comes from the nursery rhyme "

Old King Cole "Old King Cole" is a British nursery rhyme first attested in 1709. Though there is much speculation about the identity of King Cole, it is unlikely that he can be identified reliably as any historical figure. It has a Roud Folk Song Index numbe ...

". The film was called ''While Nero Fiddled'' on its USA release. It is a loose sequel to the 1940 film ''

Sailors Three ''Sailors Three'' (released in the US as ''Three Cockeyed Sailors'') is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Carla Lehmann. This was cockney music hall comedian Trinder's debut ...

'' which had also starred Trinder. The film was only moderately successful at the British

Box Office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. ...

but proved to be a major hit in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Plot

Tommy Taylor and "The Professor", two sailors returning from leave to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

on a

tandem bicycle A tandem bicycle or twin is a bicycle (occasionally a tricycle) designed to be ridden by more than one person. The term tandem refers to the seating arrangement (fore to aft, not side by side), not the number of riders. Patents related to ...

, they sing

Sweet Fanny Adams Fanny Adams (30 April 1859 – 24 August 1867) was an eight-year-old English girl who was murdered by a solicitor's clerk, Frederick Baker, in Alton, Hampshire, in 1867. Her murder was extraordinarily brutal and caused a national outcry i ...

- a song which now sounds very innocent but was extremely risque at the time. They rescue Lydia, a

, who had been

hitch-hiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Signaling ...

on the road and was assaulted by an over-amorous driver. They get a puncture as they reach

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

. The professor tells them of an old legend that those caught at Stonehenge at midnight on

midsummer Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest Daytime, day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of Eu ...

's night are transported back in time. Moments later the area is struck by lightning. Nearby a group of Roman soldiers have suddenly appeared whom they initially mistake for members of

ENSA The Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) was an organisation established in 1939 by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson to provide entertainment for British armed forces personnel during World War II. ENSA operated as part of the Navy, ...

. However, they swiftly prove to be genuine Romans who arrest them and threaten instant death unless they can prove they are

Druids A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. The druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no wr ...

. Among the musical numbers in the picture, Tommy Trinder gives a stupendous performance as "Senorita Alvarez" from

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

(impersonating

Carmen Miranda Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha (9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955), known professionally as Carmen Miranda (), was a Portuguese-born Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress. Nicknamed "The Brazilian Bombshell", she was known for her signature ...

). Caesar creates him a Dame of the Roman Empire for his performance.

Cast

as Tommy Taylor *

Poppaea Poppaea Sabina (30 AD – 65 AD), also known as Ollia, was a Roman empress as the second wife of the emperor Nero. She had also been wife to the future emperor Otho. The historians of antiquity describe her as a beautiful woman who used intrig ...

as 'The Professor' * Francis L. Sullivan as

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

as Thora *

Mary Clare Mary Clare Absalom (17 July 1892 – 29 August 1970) was a British actress of stage, film and television. Biography Daughter of George Alfred Absalom, Clare was educated at Wood Green secondary school, first worked in an office but a loan ...

as Volumnia *

as Lydia * Ernest Milton as Titus *

as Centurion of the 8th Legion *

Russell Thorndike Arthur Russell Thorndike (6 February 1885 – 7 November 1972) was a British actor and novelist, best known for the Doctor Syn of Romney Marsh novels. Less well-known than his sister Sybil but equally versatile, Russell Thorndike's first lov ...

as High Priest *

Frederick Piper Frederick Piper (23 September 1902 – 22 September 1979) was an English actor of stage and screen who appeared in over 80 films and many television productions in a career spanning over 40 years. Piper studied drama under Elsie Fogerty at the ...

as Auctioneer *

Alec Mango Alec Mango (16 March 1911 – 7 November 1989) was an English actor. Best known for portraying El Supremo in the 1951 '' Captain Horatio Hornblower'', he also appeared in '' South of Algiers'' (1953), '' The Strange World of Planet X'' (1958), ...

as Secretary * Danny Green as

Lictor A lictor (possibly from Latin language, Latin ''ligare'', meaning 'to bind') was a Ancient Rome, Roman civil servant who was an attendant and bodyguard to a Roman magistrate, magistrate who held ''imperium''. Roman records describe lictors as hav ...

* Frank Tickle as Master of Ceremonies *

as slave girl who asks about her future at orgy * Robert Wyndham as Lion-Keeper

Critical reception

Sky Movies Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema on ...

said, "the stars look as though they're having fun, which was just the tonic for wartime audiences, though it all looks less than sparkling now." *George Perry wrote in ''Forever Ealing'', "the film is not of great consequence. The script ... Was thick with laboured gags likening aspects of Roman times to wartime Britain." *Graeme Clark wrote in ''The Spinning Image'', "played with a mixture of cheeky charm and a sly wink from the cast, and notable for its casting of black singer and actress

in a refeshingly non-stereotypical role for its day, if you catch the references then you should have fun with ''Fiddlers Three''. Yes, it's nonsense, but it's nonsense well done." *'' Time Out'' called the film a "cheeky wartime British comedy with odd imaginative touch (associate producer

Robert Hamer Robert Hamer (31 March 1911 – 4 December 1963) was a British film director and screenwriter best known for the 1949 black comedy ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' and the now acknowledged 1947 classic '' It Always Rains on Sunday''. Biography Ham ...

reshot a good deal of it)."

Bibliography

* Reid, John. ''Films Famous, Fanciful, Frolicsome and Fantastic''. Lulu, 2006.

References

External links

* {{Michael Balcon 1940s historical comedy films British black-and-white films Ealing Studios films 1944 films Films directed by Harry Watt Films set in the 1940s Depictions of Nero on film 1950 and before films about time travel Films produced by Michael Balcon Films set in England Films set in ancient Rome British historical comedy films 1940s English-language films 1940s British films English-language historical comedy films