Davy (1957)

[DAVID RAYNER]

Does anyone know what has become of the 1957 film DAVY, starring Harry Secombe. Alexander Knox and Adele Leigh? I believe it was an Ealing film and had the distinction of being the first British film in Technirama. As far as I know, it has never been released on video and hasn't been shown on television in the UK since around 1964...an incredible thirty-eight years ago! Does anyone know the reason why it's never shown?

[darrenburnfan]

Aged ten and three quarters, I went to the now long gone ABC Empire, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, on Monday, January 20th, 1958, to see the double feature programme of Harry Secombe and Adele Leigh in Davy and Rory Calhoun and Anne Francis in The Hired Gun. I remember standing outside the cinema before I went in, looking at the Front-of-House stills in the display cases, wanting to possess them and telling myself that one day, no matter how long it took, I would have both sets of stills. Well, I managed to get The Hired Gun set about eight years ago, but the Davy set has always eluded me...until today. I finally came across a set on eBay over a week ago and bought it outright using the Buy It Now facility and it arrived today, almost fifty-three years to the day that I went to see the film at the ABC Empire. I've been on eBay for nine years and nothing from Davy has ever turned up on there before. If I could drink, I'd go out to celebrate. Here below, I have scanned three of the stills from the set of eight.

Adele Leigh and Harry Secombe.

Harry Secombe; Susan Shaw; Ron Randell; Bill Owen and George Relph.

Peter Frampton; Harry Secombe and Adele Leigh.

[cassidy]

Hey Darren, that was half the fun in those days looking at the scenes from the films in the display cases (particularly if it was an X film) both before and after you'd been in. Wonderful memories.

Aged ten and three quarters, I went to the now long gone ABC Empire, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, on Monday, January 20th, 1958, to see the double feature programme of Harry Secombe and Adele Leigh in Davy and Rory Calhoun and Anne Francis in The Hired Gun. I remember standing outside the cinema before I went in, looking at the Front-of-House stills in the display cases, wanting to possess them and telling myself that one day, no matter how long it took, I would have both sets of stills. Well, I managed to get The Hired Gun set about eight years ago, but the Davy set has always eluded me...until today. I finally came across a set on eBay over a week ago and bought it outright using the Buy It Now facility and it arrived today, almost fifty-three years to the day that I went to see the film at the ABC Empire. I've been on eBay for nine years and nothing from Davy has ever turned up on there before. If I could drink, I'd go out to celebrate. Here below, I have scanned three of the stills from the set of eight.

Adele Leigh and Harry Secombe.

Harry Secombe; Susan Shaw; Ron Randell; Bill Owen and George Relph.

Peter Frampton; Harry Secombe and Adele Leigh.

[darrenburnfan]

Yes, and thanks to the late forum member John Brice in Toronto, Canada, who very kindly sent me a DVD-R of Davy a year or so ago, I was able to look at the film today and put the stills in the order of when the scenes appeared in the film.

[julian_craster]

Interesting that this was in TECHNIRAMA - was DAVY the only Ealing widescreen film ? (apart from Sammy Goiung South which was not really Ealing....)

[Film Man]

I think you are correct julian-craster....a shame that a beautiful sharp definition copy from the Technirama negative has never been released on DVD...is the movie any good darrenburnfan?
Film Man.

[darrenburnfan]

Yes, it was not only the first British film in Technirama (then a new process), but the first Ealing film in anamorphic widescreen. It must have cost at least twice as much as as an ordinary 35mm film, as the Technirama process (in truth, anamorphic VistaVision in which the negative went horizontally through the camera instead of vertically), used up twice as much colour negative per minute as did a standard 35mm film. Because the image area of the negative was twice that of ordinary 35mm, the Technirama films were beautifully sharp and clear. For general exhibition, the negative was reduced to be shown as a vertically running 35mm CinemaScope film with extraordinary definition.

[darrenburnfan]

Well, I thought the film itself was good, Film Man. As for the DVD transfer I have, it's clear enough, although nowhere near as sharp as it looked originally in Technirama, and the sound is excellent. However, the image on the DVD is semi-squeezed at 1.85:1 (making the actors look a bit tall and thin) when it should be stretched out to 2.35:1. Apart from that, it's okay.

[darrenburnfan]

To those who have never seen Davy and don't know what it's about, here is a very short synopsis: Davy Morgan (Harry Secombe) is the leading member of a family music hall act called The Mad Morgans. He has a fabulous tenor singing voice and, through a chain of circumstances, is invited to audition before a famous impressario (Alexander Knox) at Covent Garden. The rest of the music hall act don't like this at all, believing that if Davy becomes an opera singer and leaves them, it will be the end of the act. Davy attends the audition, singing Nessum Dorma and passes it with flying colours, but is torn between being what he always wanted to be...an opera singer...and keeping the family act together. If you've never seen the film and want to find out what he did about this, you'll have to see the film. Davy is full of then British bit players, including Kenneth Connor; Bill Fraser; Joan Sims; Liz Frazer; Gladys Hensen and even Bernard Cribbins. The then seven years old Peter Frampton plays Davy's nephew, Tim and Adele Leigh plays Joanna Reeves, a singer at Covent Garden who tries to help Davy realise his ambition to be an opera singer.

[Windthrop]

Well, I thought the film itself was good, Film Man. As for the DVD transfer I have, it's clear enough, although nowhere near as sharp as it looked originally in Technirama, and the sound is excellent. However, the image on the DVD is semi-squeezed at 1.85:1 (making the actors look a bit tall and thin) when it should be stretched out to 2.35:1. Apart from that, it's okay.

There was a clip of it at Christmas in The Unforgettable .... Harry Secombe. The picture quality looked good in that, as was Secombe's operatic voice. His daughter said she couldn't look at him singing Nessum Dorma in it now because it moved her to tears. His son also went into why he thought his father chose not to pursue an operatic career. A very good programme.

[darrenburnfan]

Unfortunately, I missed that programme, Windthrop. I would like to have seen it. Why they've never released Davy on either VHS or DVD, I don't know. There are far worse films available on DVD than Davy. His singing of Nessum Dorma (actually filmed on the stage at Covent Garden) is a standout and the film would be worth buying for that alone. In a way, as it turned out, Davy mirrored Harry Secombe's real life dilemma...whether to be a comic or an opera star.

[theuofc]

Unfortunately, I missed that programme, Windthrop. I would like to have seen it. Why they've never released Davy on either VHS or DVD, I don't know. There are far worse films available on DVD than Davy. His singing of Nessum Dorma (actually filmed on the stage at Covent Garden) is a standout and the film would be worth buying for that alone. In a way, as it turned out, Davy mirrored Harry Secombe's real life dilemma...whether to be a comic or an opera star.

Thanks for sharing these wonderful stills from Davy. I've found this thread very interesting as I've never heard of the film. This is one of the real perks of BritMovie, learning about older gems like this.

Barbara

[darrenburnfan]

Glad you like them, Barbara, although I forgot to lighten the stills in PaintShopPro after I scanned them, as my scanner tends to scan photos slightly darker than they are. But rest assured that the actual stills are much brighter in reality than they appear above. I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of Davy. Most people on this side of the pond haven't heard of it either, due to the fact that it has only been shown on television here once, as far as I recall, and that was on ITV way back in 1964. In fact, only people like me, who actually saw it on its original cinema release in 1958 tend to remember it these days and, of course, that puts the people who went to see it back then well into their sixties by now, even if they were only 10 or 11 at te time. Most adults who went to see it back then are probably no longer with us.

[Film Man]

I must ask Jonathan Balcon (Mick's Son) about it...after all these memories, plus Technirama,my favourite screen process...in fact I have often purchased films just because they were filmed in it! I wonder who owns the rights these days????
Film Man.

[darrenburnfan]

Well, it was an Ealing film released in the UK through MGM and, of course, it was a Michael Balcon production. As far as I know, it's the only Ealing film never to have been released on either VHS or DVD. Perhaps Jonathan Balcon can explain why that is.

BELOW: A poster for Davy from the back cover of the February, 1958, issue of ABC Film Review.

[Grant]

If its Ealing I'd pick it up. Thanks for the thread DBF. Definitely not seen this one before.

[darrenburnfan]

Glad it's of interest to you, Grant. As far as I remember, it was either Davy or Dunkirk, both made at around the same time, that was the last Ealing film.

[Nick Dando]

Is the Peter Frampton in the picture with Harry Secombe and Adele Leigh sitting at a table the same Peter Frampton, Rock Star? He'd have been about eight at the time the film was made. He's listed in the cast - Davy (1958) - IMDb - and has a picture of the musician, but the entry for Peter Frampton doesn't list it - Peter Frampton - IMDb

Nick

[darrenburnfan]

This is a bit of a puzzle, Nick. It seems that there may be two Peter Frampton's...both born in 1950...and that one became a recording artiste and the other became a film makeup man. IMDb gets confused by two people with the same name born in the same year (and who wouldn't?). Perhaps the Peter Frampton from Davy will drop by and tell us if he later became a rock star.

[julian_craster]

I think The Seige of Pinchgut (1959) was the last film with the Ealing logo......