The Common Touch – 1941 | 104 mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Under the terms of his father’s will, on reaching eighteen years of age, orphaned public school boy and fine cricketer Peter Henderson (Geoffrey Hibbert) becomes head of the substantial firm of John Henderson & Co. in the City of London. He announces his intention to learn the duties of his new job comprehensively and diligently, to the discomfiture of the Directors who have run the firm since his father’s death.

Peter is concerned that an urgent construction project on a site near Covent Garden has not been clearly explained to him. He declines to authorize it for the time being, to the annoyance of Cartwright (Raymond Lovell), the Managing Director. Peter learns from a staff member that the site is partly occupied by “Charlie’s”; a hostel for down-and-outs. Chris Weatherby, Peter’s old school friend, comes to stay with Peter at his London mansion. They attend a cabaret at a London hotel. Also in the attendance is the lovelorn test cricketer, Stuart Gordon, watching the song and dance performance of his beautiful inamorata, Sylvia Meadows (Greta Gynt). Sylvia returns his love, but refuses to marry him.

Next day, Peter persuades Chris to join him in investigating the threatened hostel. Disguised as working class lads down on their luck, they find the shelter full of warmth and friendship for the homeless, a number possessing a wide variety of useful skills, including a concert pianist and a group of buskers who provide musical interludes throughout the rest of the film. Suspecting the motives behind Cartwright’s quit notice on “Charlie’s”, Peter and Chris stay there to investigate. They form an association with the impoverished lawyer, nicknamed Lincolns Inn, to scrutinize the legal circumstances of the lease.

In the meantime, Chris’s sister, Mary, who helps at a soup kitchen near “Charlie’s” discovers the two youth’s interest in saving the hostel and, unbeknown to them, takes a hand. Peter becomes attracted to Mary. It also transpires that a hostel resident, the former gaolbird and forger Inky Meadows, is the father of Sylvia Meadows. Lincolns Inn helps him in a failed attempt to re-establish communication with his daughter. Inky commits suicide, thus freeing his daughter to pursue her relationship with Gordon. His suicide note implicates Cartwright in a forged document. Cartwright is distracted in his suite by Mary, while Peter and the hostel factotum raid his safe and retrieve the incriminating document.

Peter announces to the denizens of “Charlie’s” that the hostel will be found temporary quarters while the new building is constructed, including a new and better “Charlie’s”. The down-and-outs anticipate a post-war utopia of high quality housing for all. Peter addresses his Directors, announcing the departure of Cartwright and his associates and the new policy of John Henderson & Co. of putting people first.

This craftsman like film must have brought warmth and encouragement to British cinemagoers in 1941. Its sympathy with the poorest in society, its one-nation political vision and its promotion of social welfare values all carry conviction. Cynics might be surprised by the extraordinary wealth of education and accomplishment to be found at “Charlie’s”, they might be a little embarrassed by the sententiousness with which its residents express their progressive aspirations for society; they might look askance at the immediate sympathy the young boss shows to the poor. Yet the sincerity of this film seems undeniable. Though they are romanticized, the down-and-outs are not patronized and there are nice realistic touches in the unwillingness to make judgements about one another and in the tendency of Peter and Chris’s cockney accents to slip into public school English. The chemistry between Peter, Chris and Mary is established convincingly and naturally. The scene of the local people at their windows, enthralled by “Chopin” playing Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto is unlikely, but a pleasant idea all the same.

What is perhaps most surprising in this wartime attempt at social realism is that it is so entertaining. A significant factor is the musical numbers which, somewhat artificially, more or less interrupt the action at intervals with musical or dance routines in cabaret or in the basement at “Charlie’s”, but these breaks are thoroughly enjoyable, notably the dancing of Greta Gynt, as Sylvia Meadows. Indeed, the performances of both female leads (the other is Joyce Howard, as Mary Weatherby) are a touch more risqué than might have been expected in this film, and none the worse for it.

Review © Stewart Naunton.