Britannia of Billingsgate

1933

1h 20m

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

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Comedy

Music

Drama

The owner of a fish-and-chips shop in the Billingsgate area of London harbors a secret ambition: to become a movie star. It turns out that she has a beautiful singing voice, and when that fact comes to the attention of a movie studio, it begins to turn her and her family's lives upside down.

Directors

Sinclair Hill

Writers

G.H. Moresby-White(writer by)

Sewell Stokes(theatre play by)

Christine Jope-Slade(theatre play by)

Stars

Violet Loraine

Gordon Harker

Kay Hammond

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Top cast

Bessie Bolton

Bert Bolton

Pearl Bolton

Fred Bolton

Mrs. Wigglesworth

Harold Hogarth

Maud

Guidobaldi

Joan

Westerbrook

Gwen

Harry

Publicity Man

Fay

Producer

Dirt Track Rider

Dirt Track Rider

Dirt Track Rider

Directors

Sinclair Hill

Writers

G.H. Moresby-White(writer by)

Sewell Stokes(theatre play by)

Christine Jope-Slade(theatre play by)

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Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews1

Review

Featured review

6/10

This is actually quite a cheery little feature that sees fish and chip shop owner "Bessie" (established theatre star Violet Loraine) aspire to become a film star. Fat chance thinks you! Well, as it happens she has a decent enough singing voice and when she is "discovered" by a local studio, her life with family "Bert" (Gordon Harker), "Pearl" (Kay Hammond) and "Fred" (John Mills) is suddenly all topsy-turvy. What makes this a little more memorable is that it demonstrates to an audience just how films were put together then - the filming, audio, lighting - and film was expensive stuff so much of this was live! Harker and Loraine have a conviviality to their characters that lends well to the gentle comedy very much of it's time: an amiable English combination of stoicism and opportunity - with a solid supporting cast. It has a charm to it this. That doesn't make it memorable or really even very good, but it had a job to do in 1930s Britain and I suspect it did it well enough to pack out the houses for eighty minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

Geronimo196729 Aug, 2022