Max Bygraves Movies
British actor Max Bygraves began his professional career after getting out of the British armed forces following WW II. On the London stage, he was a popular Cockney entertainer in many revues and other shows. In film, he was known as a versatile character actor. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Spare the Rod is a British juvenile-delinquent picture set in a tough East End school. Comedian Max Bygraves plays straight as a new teacher, faced with a classroom full of hostile, defiant punks. It would be simple enough to use force on the kids, as their parents have, but Bygraves wants to win their hearts and minds. He manages to establish communications with the students; the next step is to bypass the outmoded educational bureaucracy. Spare the Rod falls somewhere between the gutsiness of Blackboard Jungle (55) and the lyricism of To Sir With Love (68). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Bygraves, Donald Pleasence, (more)
- 1959
A full thirty years before Look Who's Talking would hit the screens with its verbose little infant, Max Bygraves and Shirley Jones starred in this routine comedy about a talking baby. Little Bobbikins (Steven Stocker) is the 14-month-old son of Benjamin and Betty (Bygraves and Jones) who is perfectly normal until his father comes home from his stint in the Navy and decides to reprise a career in show business. When nothing seems to go right for him, little Bobbikins decides to give Dad a few helpful hints. He never talks to anyone else, and this leads others to think his father is hearing things. Soon the baby gives some hot tips when his Dad becomes friends with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, leading to a killing on the stock market. Now rich and definitely affected by it, this new Dad has baby wondering if there is something he could do to bring him back down to earth again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Bygraves, Shirley Jones, (more)
- 1958
Max Bygraves, a popular British comedian who once in a while entertained thoughts of a dramatic career, is costarred with Barbara Murray in A Cry from the Streets. The two play a pair of ingenuous social workers, assigned to one of the grubbiest neighborhoods in London. They join forces to help a group of castoff orphan children. The episodic structure of Cry from the Streets gave the film a semi-documentary feel, even though every incident herein was carefully written and rehearsed beforehand. Based on the novel The Friend in Need by Elizabeth Coxhead, the film was filmed in 1957, released in 1958, and reissued in some markets as Cry from the Street (singular) in 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Bygraves, Barbara Murray, (more)
- 1956
Reginald Arkell's backstage novel Charley Moon made a successful transition to the screen in 1956. Comic actor Max Bygraves stars as Moon, a small-time music-hall performer with an eye for the ladies. A string of lucky breaks, and a little bit of ruthlessness on Charley's part, allows him a chance at the Big Time in London. His West End engagement is successful, but before long the bloom is off the rose and Charley Moon is back where he started. The impressive supporting cast includes fabled impressionist Florence Desmond and American character actor Lou Jacobi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Bygraves, Dennis Price, (more)
- 1951
Tom Brown's Schooldays was the second film version of Thomas Hughes' semiautobiographical novel. John Howard Davies, who'd previously essayed the title role in Oliver Twist, stars as first-year Rugby student Tom Brown. In his efforts to adjust to boarding-school life, Tom must contend with the calculated cruelties of all-around bully Flashman (John Forrest). One of the boy's few allies is new schoolmaster Doctor Arnold (Robert Newton), who believes that discipline can be tempered with kindness, a "radical" notion so far as his colleagues are concerned. Despite the authenticity of its British surroundings, the 1951 version of Tom Brown's Schooldays isn't quite as good as the 1940 Hollywood adaptation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Howard Davies, Robert Newton, (more)
- 1949
Five scriptwriters pooled their talents on the 79-minute British programmer Bless 'Em All. The stars are radio and music-hall favorites Hal Monty and Max Bygraves, cast as a pair of silly soldiers. The boys battle each other and their sergeant Les Ritchie over the affections of toothsome Patricia Linova. Things take a serious turn when Monty and Bygraves participate in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Not surprisingly, the title song is performed as often and as loudly as possible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1949
We're not sure, but the character of "Skimpy Carter" must have had some sort of following in Britain. Why else would a whole movie--Skimpy in the Navy--be built around this thinnish character? Music hall star Hal Monty plays the title role, playing an ex-soldier who becomes a sailor in order to seek out buried treasure. Monty and his pals Max Bygraves (later a stellar comedian in his own right) and Les Ritchie search and dig to and fro, all for the love of heroine Avril Angers. 84 minutes of forgettable songs and shapeless slapstick later, Skimpy emerges triumphant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
