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It's Hard to Be Good

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It's Hard to Be Good
Original British poster
Directed byJeffrey Dell
Written byJeffrey Dell
Produced byJohn W. Gossage
Starring
CinematographyLaurie Friedman
Edited byHelga Cranston
Music byAntony Hopkins
Production
company
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Release dates
  • 10 November 1948 (1948-11-10) (London, England)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish

It's Hard to Be Good is a 1948 British comedy film directed by Jeffrey Dell and starring Jimmy Hanley, Anne Crawford and Raymond Huntley.[1] In the film, an ex-army officer finds his altruistic attempts to improve the world are unsuccessful.[2]

It was shot at Denham Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.[1]

Plot

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On leaving the army, officer and war hero Captain James Gladstone Wedge (Jimmy Hanley) is full of idealism about bettering the world. He falls in love with Mary Leighton (Anne Crawford), who nursed him whilst he was recovering from his wartime injuries. He bungles a proposal to her at a railway station after being demobed, (Demobilization), but his good-nature had already convinced her that she should marry him.

Jimmy's attempts to promote goodwill and community spirit amongst his relatives and neighbours are always frustrated, due to their innate hostilities, which the latest collaborative war efforts did nothing to dispel. All his attempts at neighbourhood reconciliation having failed, and seeing that people have put their trust in the same status-quo of conflict after the war that existed before, Jimmy finally settles into a flat with Mary, and ends the film by loudly playing his trumpet in response to all the thoughtless noise around him, no longer caring what people might think.

Cast

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Critical reception

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In his book Forgotten British Film, Philip Gillett argued that "The satirical It's Hard to be Good (1948) deserves rescuing from obscurity, with its decorated hero looking for a niche in an uncaring peacetime world."[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b "It's Hard to Be Good (1948)". BFI. Archived from the original on 4 December 2017.
  2. ^ Gillett p.23
  3. ^ Gillett, Philip (11 May 2017). Forgotten British Film: Value and the Ephemeral in Postwar Cinema. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781443891851 – via Google Books.

Bibliography

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  • Gillett, Philip. Forgotten British Film: Value and the Ephemeral in Postwar Cinema. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
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