Maytime in Mayfair

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Maytime in Mayfair

| image = "Maytime_in_Mayfair".jpg

| caption = Film poster

| director = Herbert Wilcox

| producer = Anna Neagle
Herbert Wilcox

| writer = Nicholas Phipps

| starring = Anna Neagle
Michael Wilding

| cinematography = Mutz Greenbaum (as Max Greene)

| music = Robert Farnon

| studio = Herbert Wilcox Productions (as Imperadio)

| distributor = British Lion Films

| released = {{film date|df=y|1949|09|12|general release}}

| runtime = 94 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| gross = £268,984 (UK)Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p489

}}

Maytime in Mayfair is a 1949 British musical romance film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Nicholas Phipps, and Tom Walls.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116194649/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/42188 BFI Database entry] It was a follow-up to Spring in Park Lane.MAYTIME IN MAYFAIR

Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 16, Iss. 181, (Jan 1, 1949): 115.

The film was one of the most popular movies at the British box office in 1949.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49700937 |title=TOPS AT HOME. |newspaper=The Courier-Mail |location=Brisbane |date=31 December 1949 |access-date=24 April 2012 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/Screen_Volume_32_Issue_3/page/n17|magazine=Screen|page=258|volume=32|issue=3|title=The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry|first=Janet|last=Thumim}}

Plot

The film begins with a brief history of Mayfair then shows a man walking into a florist in Shepherd Market.

Debonair Michael Gore-Brown inherits a London fashion house: Maison Londres. Knowing nothing about business or fashion, he becomes romantically involved with its beautiful manageress, Eileen Grahame, who he says reminds him of Anna Neagle. He blithely helps himself to the petty cash to buy her lunch and brings in his ex-military cousin Sir Henry as a 'business advisor'. They are interrupted by the foppish D'Arcy Davenport, Eileen's fiancé.

A nearby rival fashion house learns of Eileen's new secret collection and leaks the story to the papers. It emerges that the cousin accidentally passed the story whilst drunk. Eileen angrily quits the business to work for the rival, who now plans to buy the business at a knock-down price. When she learns that Michael is about to do this, she returns to sort out the mess, and marries him.{{cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/film/mfbhq/maytime-in-mayfair |title=Maytime in Mayfair | Film review and movie reviews |publisher=Radio Times |date=2013-04-08 |access-date=2014-06-20}}

Cast

Costume Design

Production

The film marked the fourth teaming of Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49928529 |title=THE STARRY WAY |newspaper=The Courier-mail |issue=3729 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=6 November 1948 |access-date=20 May 2019 |page=2 |via=National Library of Australia}}

After the film started shooting Tom Walls called Wilcox asking for a role. Wilcox put in a part of a policeman for the actor.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47222356 |title=News from the studios |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=16 |issue=32 |location=Australia |date=15 January 1949 |access-date=20 May 2019 |page=31 |via=National Library of Australia}} Filming took place in January through to March 1949.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230238266 |title=U.K. movie producers wait for Govt, move |newspaper=The Sun |issue=12,187 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=17 February 1949 |access-date=20 May 2019 |page=25 (LATE FINAL EXTRA) |via=National Library of Australia}} Four lines of clothing were designed specifically for the film.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18467055 |title=LONDON FASHION IN A FILM |newspaper=The Sunday Herald (Sydney) |issue=15 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=1 May 1949 |access-date=20 May 2019 |page=6 (Magazine Section) |via=National Library of Australia}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229778729 |title=Parade of model gowns in new film |newspaper=The Sun |issue=2404 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=8 May 1949 |access-date=20 May 2019 |page=5 (COLOR MAGAZINE) |via=National Library of Australia}}

Soundtrack

  • Maytime in Mayfair

Music by Harry Parr Davies

Lyrics by Harold Purcell

Written by Gabriel Ruiz and Ricardo Lopez

English Lyrics by Sunny Skylar

  • Do I Love You?

Written by Bruno Bidoli, David Heneker and Don Pelosi

  • I'm Not Going Home

Written by Kermit Goell and Fred Prisker

  • The Moment I Saw You

Music by Manning Sherwin

Lyrics by Harold Purcell

Reception

=Box Office=

The film was hugely popular in Britain. The Motion Picture Herald said it was the third most watched film of the year after The Third Man and Johnny Belinda and more than Scott of the Antarctic, Paleface, Easter Parade, The Blue Lagoon, Red River, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and The Hasty Heart. Neagle and Wilding were voted the most popular stars of the year in Britain.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article134178264 |title=BRITISH STUDIOS PLAN 44 FILMS |newspaper=Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate |issue=22,854 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=31 December 1949 |access-date=20 May 2019 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1949 Britain was The Third Man with "runners up" being Johnny Belinda, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Paleface, Scott of the Antarctic, The Blue Lagoon, Maytime in Mayfair, Easter Parade, Red River and You Can't Sleep Here.{{cite book|page=232|title=Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema|last=Lant|first= Antonia|year=1991 |publisher=Princeton University Press }}

However even by December 1949 the film had not recouped its cost.FILM PRODUCERS' HEAVY LOSS: A Shareholder's Questions

The Manchester Guardian 31 Dec 1949: 3.

=Critical reception=

The New York Times called the film "nauseously Technicolored flimflam";{{cite web|last=Crowther |first=Bosley |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D00EFDA103CE53ABC4B51DFB2668389649EDE&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As |title=Movie Review – Maytime in Mayfair – THE SCREEN IN REVIEW |work=NYTimes.com |date=1952-04-23 |access-date=2014-06-20}} while TV Guide noted "The plot is about as simple as they come, but it's told so nicely that you can't help but be charmed. Wilding and Neagle are a sort of British Astaire and Rogers, playing well off each other in this lighthearted romp. The beautiful fashion designs, as well as glorious set decor, are well captured in the Technicolor photography."{{cite web|url=http://movies.tvguide.com/maytime-in-mayfair/review/105859 |title=Maytime In Mayfair Review |publisher=Movies.tvguide.com |access-date=2014-06-20}}

References

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