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A Boy, a Girl and a Bike

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A Boy, a Girl and a Bike
British quad poster
Directed byRalph Smart
Screenplay byTed Willis
Story byRalph Keene
& John Sommerfield
Produced byRalph Keene
Alfred Roome
StarringJohn McCallum
Honor Blackman
Patrick Holt
Diana Dors
CinematographyRay Elton
Phil Grindrod
Edited byJames Needs
Music byKenneth Pakeman
Production
company
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
  • 23 May 1949 (1949-05-23) (UK)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£61,000 (by 1953)[1]

A Boy, a Girl and a Bike is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Ralph Smart and starring John McCallum, Honor Blackman and Patrick Holt,[2] with art direction by George Provis.[3] The film is set in Wakeford and in the Yorkshire Dales. It features cycle sabotage and cycling tactics.

Plot

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Young couple Sue and Sam are members of a Yorkshire cycling club, the Wakeford Wheelers. Romantic complications ensue when wealthy David becomes smitten with Sue and joins the club to pursue her, much to Sam's dismay.

Cast

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Production

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The film is based on an original idea by Sydney Box, who was head of production at Gainsborough. Box devised the idea while out for a Sunday drive and assigned the script to Ted Willis, who had worked for Box on the scripts for Holiday Camp and The Huggetts Abroad. Willis had a reputation as a skilled writer for working-class characters. The film was originally titled Wheels Within Wheels.[4][5]

Richard Attenborough was meant to play a key role but was busy making The Guinea Pig, so Patrick Holt played his part instead.[6]

In March 1948, Smart scouted locations in Yorkshire[7] and filming took place in September 1948 at Lime Grove Studios as well as on location in Yorkshire at places including Wakefield, Hebden Bridge, Skipton and Malham Cove.[8]

Reception

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Variety called the film "feeble ... valueless for the US market."[9]

The Monthly Film Bulletin called the film a "simple unpretentious story enlivened by flashes of homely Yorkshire humour."[10]

References

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  1. ^ Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 211
  2. ^ Spicer p.214
  3. ^ "A Boy, A Girl and a Bike (1949)". Archived from the original on 26 March 2017.
  4. ^ Spicer, Andrew (2006). Sydney Box. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719059995.
  5. ^ Ted Willis, Evening All: 50 Years Over a Hot Typewriter (London: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 11, 23.
  6. ^ "U.S. ACTOR'S FIRST FILM IS BRITISH". The Sun. No. 11948. New South Wales, Australia. 13 May 1948. p. 17 (LATE FINAL EXTRA). Retrieved 11 July 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "They'll spend summer outside -- if it's fine". The Sun. No. 2345. New South Wales, Australia. 21 March 1948. p. 35. Retrieved 11 July 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "McCALLUM BACK AFTER HOLLYWOOD HOLIDAY". The Mail (Adelaide). Vol. 37, no. 1, 900. South Australia. 30 October 1948. p. 3 (SUNDAY MAGAZINE). Retrieved 11 July 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ Review of film at Variety
  10. ^ BOY A GIRL AND A BIKE Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 16, Iss. 186, (June 30, 1949): 96.

Bibliography

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  • Spicer, Andrew. Sydney Box. Manchester University Press, 2006.
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