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Boots! Boots! was George Formby's first feature and launched his screen
career. He subsequently got a contract with Associated Talking Pictures at
Ealing Studios and went on to become a nationwide success. Viewed today, it
takes a little effort to see past the film's poor sound quality, static scene
set-ups and lack of sets and understand Formby's star appeal. The comedy
business is inconsistent and Formby fluffs his lines several times, while the
rather unpleasant treatment by Formby of an apparently gay male character and an
older unmarried woman jars. But the musical performances are where he really
shines and were doubtless what audiences came to see.
The wafer-thin plot is almost incidental, and the film is constructed around
a series of comic turns by Formby and some song and dance routines performed by
the stars and other artists. The denouement is hurried and unclear - the
incredible revelation that Snooky is the long-lost niece of the Cliffords is
easily missed. Snooky was played by Beryl Formby, George's wife, who was
notoriously protective of her husband - to the extent that she was banned from
the sets of his later productions.
Boots! Boots! was made for £3,000 in a small studio above a taxi garage off
Regent Street in Central London, where the noise of car engines made filming
difficult. The critics were less than impressed with Formby's screen debut;
audiences, however, apparently flocked to it. Producer John E. Blakeley once
tried to see it in a town he was passing through to gauge the audience's
reaction, but found the screening was sold out.
Two versions of the film exist. The version originally held by the BFI
National Archive was a shortened one cut for reissue in 1938, but a long version
was recently discovered, with extra scenes and a performance by a very young
Betty Driver, later of Coronation Street (ITV, 1960-).
Jo Botting
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