Lilacs in the Spring

A young actress, Carole Beaumont, is wooed by actor-producer Charles King but she is unsure how she feels about him. During an air raid in the Blitz, a bomb explosion rocks the cafe and Carole is knocked unconscious. In her confused state, fantasies flash through her mind, and she seems to become Nell Gwyn of Old Drury, with Charles King looking very much like King Charles.

Recovering, she is advised by her doctor to take a rest in the country and, there, another beau, Albert Gutman, prompts his grandmother, Lady Drayton (Helen Haye), to invite Carole to their family home at Windsor. She accepts and telephones Charles but hangs up when his phone is answered by a female voice.

Looking out on Windsor Castle, she sees herself as the young Queen Victoria and Albert as Prince Albert. Influenced by her day-dream, she accepts Albert's proposal. Charles arrives to tell her that all arrangements are made for her to leave with him and the company for Burma, but she refuses saying she will never marry an actor.

Barmaid Kate tells Charles why Carole feels the way she does about actors: Carole's mother, Lillian Grey, was with a touring show in 1913 when the handsome star, John Beaumont raised her from the chorus to be his partner in his first West End show. They were a success, fell in love and were married. But the war soon took Beau off to Flanders and Lillian was left to become a great star on her own. Carole was born in wartime, but saw little of her busy mother.

{{castlist|

• Anna Neagle as Carole Beaumont/Lillian Grey/Queen Victoria/Nell Gwyn
• Errol Flynn as John Beaumont
• David Farrar as Charles King/King Charles II
• Kathleen Harrison as Kate
• Peter Graves as Albert Gutman/Prince Albert
• Helen Haye as Lady Drayton
• Scott Sanders as Old George
• Alma Taylor as Woman in theater audience
• Hetty King as Woman in theater audience
• Alan Gifford as Hollywood director
• Jennifer Mitchell as Young Carole
• Gillian Harrison as Carole as child
• George Margo as Reporter
• Gerard Heinz as Waiter at Romano's
• Sam Kydd as Actor in Beaumont Film
• George Benson as Theatre Royal manager
• Stephen Boyd as Beaumont's Poolside Companion
• Sean Connery as Extra in crowd scene

}}

The film was made by Everest Pictures, a new production company from producer-director Herbert Wilcox. Wilcox had just made three films in collaboration with Republic Pictures, and hoped for them to finance films of two Ivor Novello musicals he had purchased. When this did not happen, he was forced to obtain finance from British Lion.{{cite book|last1=Harper|first1=Sue|last2=Porter|first2=Vincent|title=British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|pages=157–158|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UyYTDAAAQBAJ&q=vincent+porter+sue+harper&pg=PA386|isbn=9780198159346}} Neagle and Wilcox guaranteed a loan of £75,000 to make the film. This later contributed to Wilcox's bankruptcy when the films failed.{{cite news |title=Mr Herbert Wilcox is freed front bankruptcy |work=The Guardian |date=18 May 1966 |page=5 }}

Errol Flynn agreed to make the film to pay off the debts he incurred due to his abandoned William Tell project, The Story of William Tell.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48133563 |title=DON IDDON'S AMERICAN DIARY. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=28 May 1954 |accessdate=5 July 2012 |page=2 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}Tony Thomas, Rudy Behlmer & Clifford McCarty, The Films of Errol Flynn, Citadel Press, 1969 p 199-200

The movie was shot at Elstree Studios near London in July 1954.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39362201 |title=SPOTLIGHT ON THE STARS. |newspaper=Western Mail |location=Perth |date=10 June 1954 |accessdate=5 July 2012 |page=28 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Neagle enjoyed working with her co-star:

I love naturalness and simplicity and Errol Flynn has this to a charming degree. He has made so many friends on this picture with his sense of fun and his conscientiousness and he has been enormously co-operative. It's so unfair to judge people by what you read or hear and I mst confess I was not prepared to find him such a hard worker."Actress Anna Neagle Tells Secret of Her Flat Tummy" Lane, Lydia. Los Angeles Times 11 July 1954: C9.

Flynn used his real singing voice.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57957150 |title=Flynn's voice will do. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=26 June 1954 |accessdate=5 July 2012 |page=6 Supplement: SUNDAY MAGAZINE |publisher=National Library of Australia}} It was the feature film debut of Sean Connery.

File:Lilacs in the Spring - Poster.jpg

The film was not a success at the box office, in Britain or the United States.

Dilys Powell of the Sunday Times said the film's "pleasures are innocuous and domesticated."Powell, Dilys. "Folk-Tale." Sunday Times [London, England] 26 Dec. 1954: 4. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. C. A. Lejeune wrote that Flynn and Neagle "quietly manage a parody of the period that is not without distinction.""BROTHERLY LOVE" Lejeune, C A. The Observer [London (UK)] 26 Dec 1954: 7.

The critic for the Los Angeles Times said "I could discover little reason for its being made"."Brothers' Conflict Acted by Van Johnson, Cotten" Scheuer, Philip K. Los Angeles Times 02 Feb 1956: 37.

Filmink magazine called it "a mess – fascinating, but a mess."{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/films-errol-flynn-5/|title=The Films of Errol Flynn: Part 5 – On the Bum, 1950-1955 |date=November 30, 2019}}

Wilcox announced he had signed Flynn to make six films over two years. (Another figure quoted was £12,000 for three films over 12 months.){{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59698242 |title=Errol Flynn feared he might be slipping. |newspaper=The Sunday Times |location=Perth |date=21 November 1954 |accessdate=5 July 2012 |page=24 Section: SPORTS SECTION |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Among the proposed projects were a version of Somerset Maugham's Caesar's Wife{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58100292 |title=Flynn—Neagle to continue as team. |newspaper=The Mail |location=Adelaide |date=6 November 1954 |accessdate=5 July 2012 |page=64 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} and a movie about Napoleon's escape from Elba, with Flynn to play an Irish soldier of fortune, but no film resulted.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59694827 |title=Cold on Scriptwriter ROMEO'S O.K. JULIET'S O.K. —BILL? NO!. |newspaper=The Sunday Times |location=Perth |date=12 September 1954 |accessdate=5 July 2012 |page=17 Supplement: FASHION SUPPLEMENT |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0048294}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|lilacs_in_the_spring}}
• [https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81281/lets-make-up Let's Make Up] at TCMDB
• [https://archive.org/stream/variety197-1955-01-05#page/n57/mode/1up/search/%22errol+flynn%22 Review of film] at Variety

{{Herbert Wilcox}}

Category:1954 films

Category:British musical films

Category:1954 musical films

Category:Films based on musicals

Category:British World War II films

Category:Films directed by Herbert Wilcox

Category:Depictions of Queen Victoria on film

Category:Films shot at Associated British Studios

Category:Films set in London

Category:Films set in the 1940s

Category:Republic Pictures films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s British films

Category:English-language musical films