The Love Lottery
| The Love Lottery | |
|---|---|
 Original UK film poster | |
| Directed by | Charles Crichton |
| Written by | Harry Kurnitz Monja Danischewsky |
| Story by | Charles Neilson-Terry Zelma Bramley Moore |
| Produced by | Monja Danischewsky |
| Starring | David Niven Peggy Cummins Anne Vernon Herbert Lom |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Edited by | Seth Holt |
| Music by | Benjamin Frankel |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | General Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 min. |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Love Lottery is a 1954 Ealing Studios comedy film, directed by Charles Crichton and starring David Niven. The film examines celebrity and fan worship with an international setting including Lake Como, ambitious dream sequences, and an uncredited cameo appearance at the end by Humphrey Bogart as himself.[2]
Plot[]
A celluloid heart-throb, who is haunted by dreams and hounded by fans, is manipulated by a gambling syndicate into being the prize in a lottery to find him a wife. But things get complicated when he falls in love before the lottery is drawn.[3]
Cast[]
- David Niven as Rex Allerton
- Peggy Cummins as Sally
- Anne Vernon as Jane Dubois
- Herbert Lom as André Amico
- Charles Victor as Jennings
- Gordon Jackson as Ralph
- Felix Aylmer as Winant
- Hugh McDermott as Rodney Wheeler
- Stanley Maxted as Oliver Stanton
- June Clyde as Viola
- John Chandos as Gulliver Kee, Chinaman
- Theodore Bikel as Parsimonious
- Sebastian Cabot as Suarez
- Eugene Deckers as Vernet
- Nelly Arno as the Russian woman[4]
Release[]
The film was first shown at the Regent Theatre in Christchurch, New Zealand on 21 January 1954, as a royal performance during the New Zealand visit by Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh.[5][6] The UK premiere was at the Gaumont Haymarket in London on 28 January 1954.[1]
Critical reception[]
The reviewer for The Times expressed mixed views after the UK premiere: "The construction of The Love Lottery is deplorably weak ... and Mr. Charles Crichton, who directs the film for Ealing Studios, is left to make what he can of an idea which could branch out in a number of directions. ... Yet, even if catches are dropped, there is much in The Love Lottery which beguiles and entertains, The satire at the expense on film publicity methods and of the mentality of the film-fan is, in the Ealing tradition, so mild that a writer such as Mr. Clifford Odets would not recognize that it was there, but it is there, nevertheless, and it scores some palpable, if gentle, hits."[7]
Michael Balcoln called it one of the worst movies made at Ealing.[8]
Many years later, the US edition of the TV Guide gave the film two out of four stars, calling it a "clever British satire on the Hollywood star system."[9]
References[]
- ^ a b "David Niven". Art & Hue. 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
- ^ "The Love Lottery". britmovie.co.uk.
- ^ "The Love Lottery". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
- ^ "Nelly Arno". BFI. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
- ^ The Times, 7 October 1953, page 10: Royal Film Shown in New Zealand Linked 2015-11-24
- ^ The Times, 22 January 1954, page 5: Quiet Weekend for the Queen Linked 2015-11-24
- ^ The Times, 1 February 1954, page 10: A Subject for Film Satire Linked 2015-11-24
- ^ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of The 1950s The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press USA. p. 66.
- ^ "The Love Lottery". TVGuide.com.
External links[]
- 1954 films
- English-language films
- 1954 comedy films
- British films
- British comedy films
- Ealing Studios films
- Films directed by Charles Crichton
- Films scored by Benjamin Frankel
- Films set in Los Angeles
- Films set in London
- Films set in Italy
- Films about filmmaking
- Films with screenplays by Harry Kurnitz
- Works about lotteries