Helter Skelter (1949)
One of the final films produced by Gainsborough Pictures, Helter Skelter is also one of the first films directed by Ralph Thomas. The film is a madcap romantic comedy about a detective who gets involved with a wealthy socialite with hiccups. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne make very short cameo appearances in this film as the cricket mad Bright & Early (aka Charters & Caldicott).from the Its Not Cricket movie
Susan Graham (played by Carol Marsh) is a 19-year-old heiress suffers an attack of hiccups whilst quarrelling with Nick Martin, a BBC radio star whom she detests. Martin (played by David Tomlinson) is at the Magnolia Club at the same time as Susan. She is there celebrating her birthday accompanied by her two guardians Ernest Bennett (Mervyn Johns) and Major Basil Beagle (Peter Haddon) along with two nephews Spencer Stone and Humphrey Beagle. Whilst watching a ventriliquest’s show she ends up laughing to the degree where she starts hiccupping and can’t stop. In an attempt to stop her from hiccupping, her guardians take her for a consultation with Dr. Jekyll (Wilfrid Hyde-White) who diagnoses that a severe fright may cure Susan of her affliction. Her guardians take this advice by arranging for her to spend a night in a haunted house possessed by the spirits of Charles II and Cromwell.
During the course of the evening she meets Martin and despite her previous argument with him, and her family’s disapproval, she ends up falling in love.
DVDs of Helter Skelter are available to purchase at Amazon. Click on the images to take you to Amazon's website
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Images of the 1949 Press Book for the release of the Helter Skelter film
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