I recently purchased a box set of six Anna
Neagle films, one of which is the 1952 drama ‘Derby Day’. This is a more than adequate way to spend an
hour and a half, but really I think that they got the star names in the wrong
order. Googie Withers is the supporting
headline name. But she is the reason to
watch this film, if you needed one. I
like Googie – a lot. She never seemed to
quite reach the top, to achieve that one defining role that put her on the
highest shelf. But she was an extremely
fine actress. I wonder if it was merely
a case of the starring roles never being offered because she didn’t quite fit a
required mould – or if she deliberately kept stardom at arm’s length. Either way, I admire her for what she
managed to achieve in the face of it.
She also achieved that rarity – a long marriage to a fellow actor. Her husband, John McCullum, stars alongside
her in Derby Day. They were separated
only by his death more than half a century after this film was made.
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| Googie by @aitchteee |
I think that her best role was in
‘Miranda’. In this very witty comedy
film she is mistress of the raised eyebrow.
Her delightfully expressive face is one the unsung highlights of a female-centric
film where she faces stiff competition from Margaret Rutherford and Glynis
Johns. But her role in ‘Miranda’ – a
well-heeled doctor’s wife – is probably not that far off her real background,
as she was empire-reared and privately educated. Her role in ‘Derby Day’ however was probably
much more of an acting challenge for Googie.
She plays a poor housewife, whose husband works at Battersea Power
Station and who has to take in lodgers to help make ends meet. Quite possibly a natural born Londoner might
take issue with her accent, but it sounded fine to me. I thought that she tackled the role well and
was wholly believable in the role.
I was also interested to see the post-war
working class household as depicted by Googie and her screen husband and
lodger. Some aspects of this have gone
forever. Waiting in for the Tuesday coal
delivery, to be tipped into a purpose built outhouse is most definitely a thing
of the past. The Clean Air Act has seen
to that. Changes in society have meant
that Googie’s character could have got a decent full time job rather than spend
her days drudging away for two men. I
wonder if there has been a rise in the number of lodgers again in recent years,
as homes have become so unaffordable in many parts of the country. If this is the case though, it will not be on
the same footing, where they have their meals cooked for them and all household
jobs done. It will be more a case of the
spare room being rented out and cooking/cleaning facilities shared.
There was one other small scene which
stood out for me. This was the keeping
of savings in the house. I was brought
up – along with most of my generation I presume – to believe that all savings
were safest in the bank. Not only could
nobody pinch it, you might get some interest too. We had a mini Yorkshire Bank branch at school
and I had a Post Office savings account from very early on. This film not only harks back to the days
when banks were not for the working class, but also reminds us of what could
happen if people do lose faith in them.
Over the past few years, banks have lost much of their respectability,
people no longer trust them as they did and to make matters worse, interest
rates have plummeted. I have heard it
said many times that “you would be better keeping it under the mattress.” Just where unsavoury visitors to your home –
or intruders – can get to it. Googie’s
lodger goes off with her savings after murdering her husband – let that be a
lesson to us all!
The way forward out of this situation is
to join your local Credit Union, a community savings bank and lender. I have carried out work alongside my local
one in my professional life and I really believe that everyone should invest in
their local union. But whether you take
this advice or not, don’t put it all on a horse in the Derby!
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