Please Turn Over
{{Short description|1959 British film by Gerald Thomas}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2016}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Please Turn Over
| image = Please Turn Over FilmPoster.jpeg
| caption =
| director = Gerald Thomas
| producer = Peter Rogers
| writer = Norman Hudis
Basil Thomas (play)
| starring = Ted Ray
Leslie Phillips
Julia Lockwood
| music = Bruce Montgomery
| cinematography = Edward Scaife
| editing = John Shirley
| color_process = Black and white
| studio = Beaconsfield Productions
| distributor = Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors
| released = {{film date|df=y|1959|12||}}
| runtime = 87 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
}}
Please Turn Over (also known as P.T.O.) is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring Ted Ray, Julia Lockwood, Jean Kent, Joan Sims, Leslie Phillips, Charles Hawtrey, Lionel Jeffries and Victor Maddern.{{Cite web |title=Please Turn Over |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150028354 |access-date=4 February 2024 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}} It was written by Norman Hudis based on the 1959 play Book of the Month by Basil Thomas{{Cite book |last=Gifford |first=Denis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1c7eCwAAQBAJ&dq=please+turn+over+1959+denis+gifford&pg=PA681 |title=British Film Catalogue: Two Volume Set - The Fiction Film/The Non-Fiction Film |date=1 April 2016 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317740636 |via=Google Books}} and produced by Peter Rogers. An English town is thrown into chaos when the daughter of one of the residents publishes a book detailing the supposed secrets of the inhabitants.
Plot
In a quiet English town, seventeen-year-old Jo Halliday lives a fairly boring life working as a hairdresser and living at home, with her nagging mother, pompous father, and fitness-obsessed aunt. Her father, an accountant, continually wishes that his dreamy, untidy daughter could be more like his secretary, Miss Millicent Jones.
One morning, the local newspaper reveals that Jo has written a book—Naked Revolt—which is an instant bestseller. It tells the story of a young girl who discovers the truth about her family and neighbours, and flees to London to become a prostitute.
Unfortunately, the town's residents believe the book to be a true portrait of the family. Her father finds himself under suspicion at work, as his colleagues believe he has been stealing money, and her mother is regarded as a harlot who has been conducting a twenty-year affair with a retired army officer who gives her driving lessons and is Jo's real father. Her local doctor is portrayed as a philanderer who is sexually involved with a number of his patients while ignoring the desperate advances of his drunken assistant, Jo's aunt.
In fact, none of this is true: her father is scrupulously honest and in love with her mother; the local doctor is a shy man, and the former army officer is simply a family friend. Jo has left town for London with a young playwright, Robert Hughes, who is interested in turning her book into a play. After discovering they are kindred spirits, the two become engaged.
When they return home, Jo is confronted by her angry family and neighbours. The doctor is threatening to sue, and her father and mother have begun questioning each other's fidelity but when he hears of the Doctor's planned lawsuit, Jo's father rises to her defense; stating that he approves of her talent if not her methods. Aunt Gladys further calms the Doctor by confessing her unrequited love for him, and they become a couple.
Cast
- Ted Ray as Edward Halliday
- Jean Kent as Janet Halliday
- Leslie Phillips as Dr. Henry Manners
- Joan Sims as Beryl, maid
- Julia Lockwood as Jo Halliday
- Tim Seely as Robert Hughes, playwright
- Charles Hawtrey as jewellery salesman
- Dilys Laye as Miss Millicent Jones, secretary
- Lionel Jeffries as Ian Howard, driving instructor
- June Jago as Gladys Worth, aunt
- Colin Gordon as Maurice
- Joan Hickson as saleswoman
- Victor Maddern as man at station
- Ronald Adam as Mr. Appleton
- Cyril Chamberlain as Mr. Jones
- Marianne Stone as Mrs. Waring
- Anthony Sagar as barman
- Lee Patterson as Rod
- Myrtle Reed as Dr.Manners' seductive patient
Reception
= Box office =
Kine Weekly called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1960.{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_kine-weekly_1960-12-15_523_2776/page/n7/mode/1up|last=Billings|first=Josh|magazine=Kine Weekly|date=15 December 1960|page=9|title=It's Britain 1, 2, 3 again in the 1960 box office stakes}}
Critical
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Though the complementary plot-within-a-plot construction of this stage farce aims its satire at middle-class life, precocious writers and current fashions in writing, the material is for the most part rather thin and uncinematic. Several of the characters, too, fail to come off, though Joan Sims is enjoyable in the small role of a daily help, and Lionel Jeffries extracts the maximum amount of comedy from a driving lesson scene."{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1960 |title=Please Turn Over |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305819766/D6ED40F4C6F645ACPQ/1 |journal=The Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=27 |issue=312 |pages=25 |via=ProQuest}}
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Notwithstanding its Carry On credentials, this gentle comedy of embarrassment could not be further from the bawdy humour of the celebrated series. Adapted by Norman Hudis, it boasts Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims and Charles Hawtrey among those aghast at the revelations contained in a potboiling novel populated by local luminaries. It's a one-joke affair, but director Gerald Thomas ensures the cast keeps it light and frothy."{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=725}}
Precedent
The literary theme had been used before, by D. E. Stevenson, in the 1934 novel Mrs.Buncle's Book.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} The 1881 novel Cape Cod Folks by Sarah Pratt McLean Greene, a semi-fictionalized account of the characters she met during her two years teaching in Cedarville, Massachusetts, also caused offence among some of the residents for the way they were depicted in the novel, and some sued for libel.