It's a Wonderful World (1956 film)

It's a Wonderful World
Original British 1-sheet poster
Directed by	Val Guest
Produced by	George Minter
Written by	Val Guest
Starring	Terence Morgan George Cole Mylène Demongeot Kathleen Harrison
Music by	Robert Farnon
Cinematography	Wilkie Cooper
Edited by	John Pomeroy
Distributed by	Renown Pictures
Release date	28 August 1956
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

It's a Wonderful World is a 1956 British musical film directed by Val Guest and starring Terence Morgan, George Cole, Mylène Demongeot (in her first English-language film and listed in the credits as Mylène Nicole) and Kathleen Harrison.^[1] It also features Dennis Lotis, a popular singer at the time. It was made at Shepperton Studios.^[2] Songs include: Rosanne, When You Came Along, Girls! Girls! Girls! (Ted Heath, Moira Heath), A Few Kisses Ago (Robert Farnon, Val Guest), and The Hawaiian War Chant (Ted Heath).^[3]

Synopsis

In London, Ray and Ken (Morgan and Cole) are two struggling composers of popular songs, and they make friends with a young French singer, Georgie (Demongeot), newly arrived from Paris. She likes one of the songs Ray and Ken have written, and chooses to sing it when she gets an audition with bandleader Ted Heath (playing himself), and she is hired as their singer. Unaware of this, Ken stumbles across another route to success when his broken record player plays his records backwards, and he uses a tape recorder to create a piece of music by playing the recording tape backwards, which he thinks sounds similar to a newly successful kind of music. He attributes the music to a fictitious avant garde composer, Rimsikoff, living abroad, and when the music is performed at a concert, most of the public and critics are duped. Georgie discovers what they are doing and warns them off, and when they learn of her success with their song, they decide Rimsikoff will 'retire'.

Main cast

• Terence Morgan - as Ray Thompson
• George Cole - as Ken Miller
• Kathleen Harrison - as Miss Gilly
• Mylène Demongeot (credited as "Mylène Nicole") - as Georgie
• Dennis Lotis - as Himself
• Ted Heath and His Music - as Themselves
• James Hayter - as Bert Fielding
• Harold Lang - as Mervyn Wade
• Maurice Kaufmann - as Paul Taylor
• Richard Wattis - as Harold
• Reginald Beckwith - as Professional Manager
• Charles Clay - as Sir Thomas van Broughton
• Derek Blomfield - as Arranger
• Sam Kydd - as Attendant
• Shirley Anne Field - as Pretty Girl (credited as Shirley Ann Field)
• Jon Pertwee - as Conductor [uncredited]

Critical reception

Allmovie wrote: "director Val Guest manages to extract new laughs out of such old setpieces as showing a snobbish audience being gradually won over by pop music. The principal attraction of It's a Wonderful World - to modern viewers, at least - is the presence of Ted Heath, whose screen appearances were rare."^[4]

External links

• It's a Wonderful World on IMDb

References