FORMBY AS ESPIONAGE AGENT

Evening Star, Issue 23693, 28 September 1940, Page 5

FORMBY AS ESPIONAGE AGENT

The sure-fire hilarities of George Form by are shrewdly interwoven into a topical tale of U-boat adventures in his latest film, ‘ Gunner George,’ which will be released very shortly by British Empire Films. George is a ukulele player mistakenly engaged for a crack band at Bergen. Its leader is -a spy who broadcasts in his music the position of British ships, but George is able to pinch his code

and forward it to the British Admiralty, with the consequence that a number of U-boats are sunk. Naturally, the baud leader seeks vengeance on George , but in the end, after many hectic adventures, our hero contrives to rouud up the entire gang.

While George sings a number of saucy songs to his own ukulele accompaniment, his knockabout exploits are amusing. Thus there are his preliminary pranks on a boat en route to Norway, where he contrives to,get into

the wrong cabin, and arouses the dudgeon of an irate husband. Then there is his burglary of the band leader’s room to obtain the code, and his ensuing travails in a bakery, where he nearly ends up well and truly baked. Prominent, too, is his nonsense in the orchestra, not least in a dream sequence in which he clouts the Fuhrer, while the climax is a further instance of wellpaced comedy in the burlesque manner. Supporting the star, who is in top gear throughout, are Phyllis Calvert as the pretty heroine of the piece, Garry Marsh as the scheming hand leader, and Romney Brent, Corale Browne, Donald Calthrop, and Hal Gordon in very effective minor characterisations.