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It's Hard to Be Good
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Wikipedia article
'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. In the film, an ex-army officer finds his altruistic attempts to improve the world are unsuccessful.Gillett p.23
It was shot at Denham Studios. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.
Plot
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 dispell. 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
* Anne Crawford as Mary Leighton
* Jimmy Hanley as Captain James Gladstone Wedge VC
* Raymond Huntley as Williams
* Edward Rigby as Parkinson
* Elwyn Brook-Jones as Budibent
* Joyce Carey as Alice Beckett
* Geoffrey Keen as Sergeant Todd
* Lana Morris as Daphne
* David Horne as Edward Beckett
* Muriel Aked as Ellen Beckett
* Cyril Smith as Fred Hobson
* Leslie Weston as Buck
* Alison Leggatt as Mrs Buck
* Robert Adair as Committee Man
* Francis De Wolff as Fighting Neighbour
* Judith Furse as Sister Taylor
* Colin Gordon as Neighbour with Baby
* Joan Hickson as Mending Woman
* Sam Kydd as Husband
* Leslie Perrins as Major Gordon
* Wensley Pithey as Vicar
* Walter Rilla as Kamerovsky
* John Salew as Committee Man
* Marianne Stone as Clerk in Newspaper Office
* Merle Tottenham as Mrs. Hobson
* Ian Wilson as Fighting Neighbour
* Joan Newell as Woman Shopper
* Amy Dalby as Bargee's Wife (uncredited)
* Gwen Williams as Woman in Town Hall (uncredited)
* Dudley Williams as Barman (uncredited)
* Guy Verney as Lieutenant (uncredited)
* Isola Strong as Girl in Post Office (uncredited)
* HG Stoker as Elderly Man (uncredited)
* George Spence as Annoyed Neighbour (uncredited)
* John Singer as Cameraman (uncredited)
* Ian Selby as Pedestrian outside Buckingham Palace (uncredited)
Critical reception
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."
References
Bibliography
* Gillett, Philip. 'Forgotten British Film: Value and the Ephemeral in Postwar Cinema'. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.
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