Helter Skelter – 1949 | 92 mins | Comedy, Romance | B&W

Plot Synopsis

This early outing by director Ralph Thomas is a dated madcap romantic comedy about a socialite with hiccups, featuring a number of surreal vignettes and cameo appearances. One of the final films produced by Gainsborough Pictures.

Susan Graham (Carol Marsh), a 19-year-old heiress suffers an attack of hiccups while quarrelling with BBC radio star Nick Martin (David Tomlinson) at the Magnolia Club. It’s Susan’s birthday and her two guardians Ernest Bennett (Mervyn Johns) and Major Basil Beagle (Peter Haddon), and two nephews Spencer Stone and Humphrey Beagle, take her for an evening out in London when she is struck down by recurring hiccups. Her guardians consult Dr. Jekyll (Wilfrid Hyde-White) who diagnoses that a severe fright may cure Susan of her affliction, and so Mr Bennett arranges a night in a haunted house possessed by the spirits of Charles II and Cromwell. A subsequent visit to BBC Broadcasting House finally affects a cure.