Jumping for Joy

Willie Joy works at a greyhound track as a cleaner, which involves picking up droppings from the dog track between races. He is tricked into standing in the line of the lure and falls on it as it speeds past with the dogs chasing it. He is fired.

Breeder Bert Benton has a sick dog and sells it to Joy who takes it home. His landlady evicts him. He meets con-man "Captain" Jack Montague and together they hatch a plan to make money from the dog, whom they name "Lindy Lou". Nursed back to health, Lindy starts to prove herself at racing trials. Benton wants to buy her back.

Crooks use Joy as an unwitting collaborator in fixing races and placing large bets. They pass doped meat for the dog but Joy and Montague eat it themselves. The crooks find them asleep but cannot find the dog. They detach Montague's railway carriage home and move it onto an active railway line. When they awake they are told they are near Doncaster. The dog is rescued just before the carriage is hit by a train.

Lindy Lou wins the Gold Cup but only due to a distraction in crowd as Joy hits a policeman to ensue a whistle is blown. He is arrested and recognises the distinctive shoes of Haines of Scotland Yard as the ringleader of the crooks.

• Frankie Howerd as Willie Joy
• Stanley Holloway as Captain Jack Montague
• A. E. Matthews as Lord Reginald Cranfield
• Tony Wright as Vincent
• Alfie Bass as Mr Blagg
• Joan Hickson as Lady Emily Cranfield
• Lionel Jeffries as Bert Benton
• Susan Beaumont as Susan Storer
• Terence Longdon as John Wyndham
• Colin Gordon as Max, the commentator
• Richard Wattis as Carruthers
• Danny Green as Plug Ugly
• Barbara Archer as Marlene
• William Kendall as Blenkinsop
• Ewen Solon as Haines
• Reginald Beckwith as Smithers
• Charles Hawtrey as man at bar (uncredited)
• Bill Fraser as drunk in snooker hall (uncredited)
• George A. Cooper as farmer (uncredited)
• Andrew Faulds as friend of drunk man (uncredited)
• Richard Dunn as policeman (uncredited)
• Joyce Gardner as the billiards room hustler (uncredited)
• Beatrice Varley as Joy's landlady (uncredited)
• John Warren as main commentator (uncredited)
• Tom Gill as second commentator (uncredited)

In June 1955 it was announced producer Raymond Stross had signed Frankie Howerd to a six picture contract, of which Jumping for Joy was to be the first. "I see Howerd as a young English Fernandel," said Stross.

The film was reported to have been specifically written for Howerd.{{cite news|title=A quip that came true|newspaper=Manchester Evening News|date=13 June 1955|page=3}} However the film had been originally offered to Tony Hancock who turned it down (he had also turned down The Big Money.){{cite book|page=204|title= When the wind changed : the life and death of Tony Hancock|last=Goodwin|first= Cliff|year=2000}} It was one of several attempts by Rank to find a comedian to match the success of Norman Wisdom.{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|access-date=5 June 2025|date=5 June 2025|title=Forgotten British Studios: Rank Organisation Film Productions|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-studios-rank-organisation-film-productions/}}

Filming took place at Pinewood in September 1955.{{cite news|title=Show gossip|newspaper=Evening Chronicle|date=17 September 1955|page=5}}

Lindy Lou was actually a racing greyhound called Moyshna Queen from Wandsworth Stadium.{{cite book |last=Genders |first=Roy |title=The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing |publisher=Pelham Books Ltd |year=1981 |isbn=07207-1106-1}}

Tony Wright's performance led to him being offered a contract at Rank.{{cite magazine|date=14 March 2025|access-date=14 March 2025|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=The Weird Non-Stardom of Tony Wright|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-weird-non-stardom-of-tony-wright/}} Another Rank contract player was Susan Beaumont.{{cite news|title=Notes|newspaper=Liverpool Echo|date=5 November 1955|page=6}}

Joyce Gardner was a well known professional billiards player at the time, not an actress.

In contemporary reviews Variety called the film a "hilarious dog racing comedy,"{{Cite journal |date=29 February 1956 |title=Jumping for Joy |url=https://archive.org/details/variety201-1956-02/page/n277/mode/1up? |journal=Variety |volume=201 |issue=13 |pages=6}} adding: "Frankie Howerd, popular TV and vaude comic here, gets the maximum of laughs out of a dismissed trackboy role"; Monthly Film Bulletin said "An inoffensively obvious and naive comedy, Jumping for Joy is enlivened by a somewhat macabre running joke about a myopic old woman driver and assured and pleasant performances by Frankie Howerd and Stanley Holloway."{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1956 |title=Jumping for Joy |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305816503 |journal=Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=23 |issue=264 |pages=32 |id={{ProQuest|1305816503}}}} Kine Weekly said "The picture smoothly follows through with its basic gags and, oddly enough, the more they are repeated the livelier they become."{{Cite journal |date=9 February 1956 |title=Jumping for Joy |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2676975620 |journal=Kine Weekly |volume=467 |issue=2537 |pages=8 |id={{ProQuest|2676975620}}}}

Evening Standard felt Howerd's "first film as star is as much a waste of his time as it is of yours."{{cite news|title=New films|newspaper=Evening Standard|date=2 February 1956|page=7}}

Halliwell's Film and Video Guide 2000 describes the film as a "totally predictable star comedy which needs livening up";John Walker (ed.) Halliwell's Film and Video Guide, London: HarperCollins, 1999, p.443 the Time Out Film Guide 2009 describes the film as "lame".John Pym (ed.) Time Out Film Guide 2009, LOndon: Ebury: 2008, p.552 TV Guide called the film a "Sporadically funny comedy".{{cite web|url=http://movies.tvguide.com/jumping-for-joy/review/102942 |title=Jumping For Joy Review |publisher=Movies.tvguide.com |access-date=2014-03-10}}

Howerd subsequently made A Touch of the Sun (1956) for Raymond Stross, although that was not made through the Rank Organisation.

The New York Times noted: "the delightful harmonica score in Jumping for Joy is provided by American expatriate Larry Adler".{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/97405/Jumping-for-Joy/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306160024/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/97405/Jumping-for-Joy/overview |url-status=dead |archive-date=2014-03-06 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |author=Hal Erickson |title=Jumping-for-Joy – Trailer – Cast – Showtimes |author-link=Hal Erickson (author) |date=2014 |access-date=2014-03-10}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0048237}}
• [https://www.reelstreets.com/films/jumping-for-joy/ Jumping for Joy] at [https://www.reelstreets.com/ ReelStreets]

{{John Paddy Carstairs}}

Category:1956 films

Category:1956 comedy films

Category:British comedy films

Category:Films shot at Pinewood Studios

Category:Films and television featuring Greyhound racing

Category:Films set in London

Category:Greyhound racing films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s British films

Category:British black-and-white films