Lucky Jim (1957 film)
Lucky Jim | |
---|---|
Roy Boulting | |
Starring | Ian Carmichael Terry-Thomas Hugh Griffith Sharon Acker |
Cinematography | Mutz Greenbaum |
Edited by | Max Benedict |
Music by | John Addison |
Production company | Charter Film Productions |
Distributed by | British Lion Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £172,289[1] |
Lucky Jim is a 1957 British
Plot
Jim Dixon is a young
Main cast
- Ian Carmichael - James "Jim" Dixon
- Terry-Thomas - Bertrand Welch
- Hugh Griffith - Professor Welch
- Sharon Acker - Christine Callaghan
- Jean Anderson - Mrs Welch
- Maureen Connell - Margaret Peel
- Clive Morton - Sir Hector Gore-Urquhart
- John Welsh - The Principal
- Reginald Beckwith - University Porter
- Kenneth Griffith - Cyril Johns
- Jeremy Hawk - Bill Atkinson
- Ronald Cardew - Registrar
- Penny Morrell - Miss Wilson
- John Cairney - Roberts
- Ian Wilson - Glee Singer
- Charles Lamb - Contractor
- Henry B. Longhurst - Professor Hutchinson
- Jeremy Longhurst - Waiter
Reception
According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was "in the money" at the British box office in 1957.[4]
The film critic writing for The Times, gave the film a mixed review after the UK premiere in September 1957, stating that the film, "carries over enough gusto from the original to be funnier than the usual run of British comedies, without managing to avoid lapses into incoherence through pressing the Joke too far."[5]
When the film premiered in the United States a year later, Howard Thompson of The New York Times described Ian Carmichael as "an English answer to Jerry Lewis": "let's fervently hope this stale attempt at mirth, furiously sliding back and forth from leaden coyness to plain custard-pie confusion, doesn't mean the end of all the sly, civilized fun we've come to expect from the British specialists."[6]
In his 2010 obituary of Ian Carmichael,
Song
The film's end titles credit "the voice of Al Fernhead" with singing the distinctive repeated "O Lucky Jim" phrase, from the eponymous song whose composers are credited as Fred V. Bowers and Charles Horwitz. The Bowers–Horwitz song "Ah, lucky Jim" inspired the book's title.[8]
References
- ^ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 359
- ^ "Lucky Jim (1957)". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Lucky Jim (1957)". screenonline.org.uk.
- ^ Billings, Josh (12 December 1957). "Others in the money". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 7.
- ^ The Times, 30 September 1957, page 3 - read via The Times Digital Archive on 21/08/2013
- ^ Thompson, Howard (September 1958). "'Lucky Jim'; Comedy From Britain Opens at Paris". The New York Times, 1 September 1958. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
- ^ Barker, Dennis (6 February 2010). "Ian Carmichael obituary". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022.
- ^ Paul Schlueter, "Academic Humor", in Maurice Charney, Comedy: A Geographic and Historical Guide, vol. 1 (Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2005), p. 14.
External links
- Lucky Jim at the better source needed]
- Lucky Jim at the BFI's Screenonline
- Lucky Jim at IMDb