Saturday Night Out (Dir: Robert Hartford-Davis, 1964).
On the surface Saturday Night Out would appear to be a non-musical version of On the Town (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, 1949) relocated from New York to London. It is actually a portmanteau movie made up of five loosely connected vignettes following the exploits of four merchant seaman and a ships passenger on a night out in the capital. An uneasy mix of the comedic and the dramatic, the movie's best sequences are those laced with humour and which are less concerned with courting controversy.
Best of the bunch are Bernard Lee as a middle age businessman falling foul of a honey trap and David Lodge as a sailor paying shore leave visit to his 'mum'. Less convincing are Inigo Jackson and his misadventures with a pair of Soho hostesses and Colin Campbell who finds love with a girl he picks up in a bar. Bottom of the heap is the episode with John Bonney and his exploits with existential anarchist Heather Sears who he stops from throwing herself into the River Thames. As Penny, Sears is the kind of free spirited beatnik kook that you only find in the movies. To be honest, I found the characterisation to be a little patronising and somewhat irritating and while the performances are fine, little about the story rings true.
Best of the bunch are Bernard Lee as a middle age businessman falling foul of a honey trap and David Lodge as a sailor paying shore leave visit to his 'mum'. Less convincing are Inigo Jackson and his misadventures with a pair of Soho hostesses and Colin Campbell who finds love with a girl he picks up in a bar. Bottom of the heap is the episode with John Bonney and his exploits with existential anarchist Heather Sears who he stops from throwing herself into the River Thames. As Penny, Sears is the kind of free spirited beatnik kook that you only find in the movies. To be honest, I found the characterisation to be a little patronising and somewhat irritating and while the performances are fine, little about the story rings true.
Saturday Night Out's hoped for sense of realism is undermined by its uncertain tone, which veers from uneasily from comedy to drama. In some respects the movie has not aged well and what was once deemed gritty is now occasionally grim. The somewhat dated attitude to women which permeates the movie doesn't help. Things are livened up by a guest spot by Liverpool beat band The Searchers, inexplicably performing the title song in a East End roughhouse. Celebrity boxer Freddie Mills also puts in an appearance as a Soho nightclub owner.
Disappointingly, for a film about a night out in London, must of Saturday Night Out takes place indoors. There are some nice shots of the Embankment and the Docklands area but overall there is less location footage than might be expected. It does boast a quality cast and some nice performances but ultimately feels patently fake. Not a bad movie, Saturday Night Out should be enjoyed by fans of the period British cinema, but is by no means essential viewing.
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