Look Up and Laugh – 1935 | 80 mins | Comedy | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Comedy-musical vehicle for Gracie Fields based on a story by J B Priestley that anticipates the scenario of Ealing’s Passport to Pimlico (1949). Like Sing as We Go (1934), Gracie is once again standing up for the working classes whilst delivering a few hearty songs; including Love Is Everywhere. The film featured Gracie’s brother Tommy Fields in his screen debut and 22-year- old Vivien Leigh making only her third film appearance.

Gracie Pearson (Gracie Fields) returns home to Birkenhead after two years touring to discover her stallholder father is in ill health and that ambitious businessman Belfer (Alfred Drayton) plans to build a department store on the site of the local market. Gracie rallies the fellow market traders to protest, until they discover an ancient Royal Charter that enables them to declare independence from Britain and so confound the takeover plans of a and the compliant town council.