Keep Your Seats, Please!

Out of work and dossing around, George (George Formby), the favourite nephew of a favourite wealthy aunt (Dame May Whitty) is left a secret inheritance after the aunt dies, but the cheque has been sewn into a seat that has been auctioned off with many of her other possessions. George learns of this and learning that all seven dining room chairs have been sold separately seeks them out.

Turned into a Formby vehicle from a novel by Ilya Ilf and adapted by regular Formby writer Anthony Kimmins and Thomas J. Geraghty and Ian Hay, this is a good early star turn as Formby/Kimmins still tries to find the formula that works for his films. There are plenty of laughs and set pieces, some quite hilarious. Produced by Basil Dean, Formby even gets to sing one of his best known songs, 'When I'm Cleaning Windows'.

KEEP YOUR SEATS, PLEASE! Is an early Ealing comedy starring George Formby, and it's most notable for being the one where he sings his most famous ukelele song, 'When I'm Cleaning Windows', in a scene randomly shoehorned into the narrative. That set-piece is indeed the highlight of the movie, but the rest is amiable enough, a typical character-focused comedy about a hidden inheritance and some unscrupulous villains trying to get their hands on it. Formby is certainly an acquired taste but I found him quite likeable in a goofy way in this one, and you do get the treat of an early Alistair Sim role where the actor plays - what else? - a villain.

In this film - as in every Formby film - goofish gormless George always gets the girl. Why?

Cus he's a soft daft lad with a happy ukulele - and he's got all the best tunes.

Admittedly, the daft antics get more farcical - even positively ludicrous - as this film goes along (goat carried onto crowded bus wearing a dog mask being the silliest example)

The scene where a matronly nurse tries to take George's trousers off made my girlfriend laugh her mascara off. "Never touched me!" Not!

I was starting to feel myself "going daft" quite a bit at that too.

If you can't let yourself go daft watching a George Formby film you may as well watch something else.

Adapted from same source material as 'The Twelve Chairs', this British version of the tale focuses on a broke young man who has to find out which of his deceased aunt's chairs sold on auction has her precious jewels stashed inside it. Also hot on the case is a well cast Alastair Sim, cunning as ever as the greedy executor of the aunt's estate, as well as a 'friend' set on slowly cheating the trusting main character out of his fortune. Lead actor George Formby is initially hard to warm to with his blatant ignorance to the way the world works (an auction where he keeps outbidding himself is excruciating). As the film progresses though, he becomes a more likable soul as he gets to often show ingenuity, whether it be walking while singing to get one woman away from her chair or ripping a chair at the exact times that a doctor listens to his heart on a stethoscope (arguably the film's funniest scene). Clifford Heatherley is simply hilarious as the bewildered doctor in question who believes that the rip sounds are symptoms of a bad heart. There is also a delightfully zany part in which Formby and his friends disguise a goat and try to take it with them. The conclusion of the movie comes just a little too neat and quickly, but at an economically paced 82 minutes, the film at least never outstays its welcome and there are some memorable songs in the mix too.

Daft ha'p'orth George Formby tries to claim a fortune left him by a rich aunt hidden in one of a set of chairs - but the chairs get sold at auction and split up, prompting a frantic runaround. Gus McNaughton is his sly accomplice whose cut rises from 10% to 100% during the course of the operation. Alistair Sim is also after the stash. George gets to twang "When I'm Cleaning Windows" and a couple of other saucy numbers. Most remarkable is the first appearance of Britain's answer to Shirley Temple, Binkie Stuart, who at 3 years old is singing, dancing and cracking jokes - a bit of an eye-opener. Quite worthwhile, and with a surprisingly satisfying ending.