‘Vote for
Huggett’ (1949) picks up where ‘Here Come The Huggetts’ left off. Britain’s
favourite post war family are continuing to live happily in their suburban
semi. Mr Huggett (Jack Warner) has a
good job. Mrs Huggett (Kathleen
Harrison) continues to muddle her way cheerily through life, taking care and
pride in her family. The eldest daughter and the flighty niece (Diana Dors) are
married off. The second daughter is
gainfully employed and the baby of the family is still Petula Clark, thank goodness.
Before I go
any further, I must say how much I adore Kathleen Harrison in this film. As in
‘Here Come the Huggetts’ I believe that it is her talent rather than Jack’s
that carries the film. She is side-splitting, and as with any actress of her calibre
it is all done in a deceptively easy looking way. Just an expression at the
right moment is enough to set you off.
Just watch the scene with the knickers near the beginning.
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| Jack by @aitchteee |
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| Kathleen by @aitchteee |
‘Vote for
Huggett’ charts Mr Huggett’s foray into local politics. The adventure begins
with a simple letter. Mr H decides that he wishes to share his opinion that
their home town needs a lido (which they all pronounce “lee-doh” throughout –
is this an old way of pronounciation or have I been saying it wrong? I always
thought it was “lie-doh”) so he writes a letter to the local newspaper. They
publish it, and it all kicks off. The
whole town sees it and comments on it – to each member of the family. People
are in agreement, and the next thing you know, Mr H is being cajoled to stand
for councillor.
If you are
into politics, there is probably quite a lot of historical stuff that you could
get out of this. But the stand out thing
for me was the power of a letter to the local newspaper, and the numbers of
people who see it. Local papers are dying now.
We have seen them lose their grip in this generation. I used to buy them
– but I no longer see them as something worth spending so much money on. Prices have rocketed up and content has
shrunk – and we already know much of it anyway through various internet
portals. I even baulk at accessing the websites of our local papers – they are
so weighed down with the advertising that they need to cover their costs that
the pages take about a month to load and then jump all over the place. Local
papers are obviously fighting for life- and who would see a letter that was
printed in one these days?
In this
respect, this film is a hark back to slower times, when information trickled
out into the community rather than vomited a technicolour-headache- inducing
mix of rumours, gossip and incident.
There is no going back, except in a Huggett induced reverie.
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