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Home and Away (film)

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Home and Away
Original British Quad poster
Directed byVernon Sewell
Written byVernon Sewell (play adaptation)
R. F. Delderfield (additional dialogue)
Based onthe play Treble Trouble by Heather McIntyre
Produced byGeorge Maynard
StarringJack Warner
Kathleen Harrison
Charles Victor
Thora Hird
Leslie Henson
CinematographyBasil Emmott
Edited byPeter Rolfe Johnson
Music byRobert Sharples
Production
company
Distributed byEros Films (UK)
Release date
  • 5 September 1956 (1956-09-05) (UK)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Home and Away is a 1956 British drama film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison.[1] It depicts the life of an ordinary working-class man after he wins the football pools. The film reunited Warner and Harrison who had previously appeared together in the Huggetts series of films.[2]

Plot

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After years of doing the football pools every week George Knowles is stunned to find that all his score draws have come up and he's won the "Treble Chance" jackpot. As George and his family celebrate with an impromptu party, his son Johnnie arrives home and drops a bombshell: the coupon belongs, not to George, but to Johnnie and his workmate Syd Jarvis. But when Syd's gold-digging and wanton mother finds out about the windfall she decides to lock her son up in order to keep him away from his share of the fortune.

Cast

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Production

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The Hyams also produced the play in the West End which Vernon Sewell said was a disaster.[3]

Critical reception

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Monthly Film Bulletin said "An innocuous British comedy which makes little attempt to hide its stage origins (most of the action is confined to the family’s living-room) and includes a liberal helping of the genial vulgarity usually associated with such material. An experienced cast works its way through some predictable situations, with Charles Victor contributing an amusing cameo as the next door neighbour whose ambition is to perfect a gas-driven television set."[4]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "The Huggets live again in this comedy from the archives; some fun though."[5]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "This is a non-Huggett reunion for Jack Warner and Kathleen Harrison. Written and directed by Vernon Sewell, this contrived tale of a widow trying to cheat a fortune out of the pools is meant to be whimsical and slightly wicked. However, it ends up merely frantic and unfunny, with the Warner-Harrison partnership having one of its few off-days."[6]

References

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  1. ^ "Home and Away". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Home and Away - Film from RadioTimes".
  3. ^ Fowler, Roy (8 July 1994). "Vernon Sewell". British Entertainment History Project.
  4. ^ "Home and Away". Monthly Film Bulletin. 23 (254): 130. 1956 – via ProQuest.
  5. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 322. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
  6. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 426. ISBN 9780992936440.
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