Review by Nick Wheatley
Stars Frankie Howard, Stanley Holloway, A E Matthews, Tony Wright, Alfie Bass,
Joan Hickson, Lionel Jeffries, Susan Beaumont | Written by Henry Blyth & Jack Davies
UK certification U | UK RRP £9.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 91 minutes | Directed by John Paddy Carstairs
Continuing on from my previous positive reviews of the Best of British collection it was now time for me to turn my attention to Jumping For Joy. A comedy produced in 1956 featuring Frankie Howard as Willie, a young man who buys an unwell greyhound from a racetrack and then begins to train the dog for a race but soon becomes entangled with a criminal underworld and the illegal race fixing of the event.
This film is clearly a vehicle for the rising star Frankie Howard. Even though the oddball Howard does manage to get a few laughs the narrative is put aside to allow him room for these jokes. The film suffers drastically as a result. It's disjointed and poorly structured with irrelevant characters coming and going. The films plot jumps erratically from Howard caring for his greyhound to spying on the criminal underworld to even him playing snooker. The most engaging moments tend to involve the greyhound but the dog is forced to take a back seat in the second half of the film for no apparent reason. Due to the lack of a cohesive flow or focus for the story it struggles forward and comes across as dull and lame.
Most of the jokes are poor, they are not simply outdated but are slapstick at best and just miss the mark and feel awkward throughout the majority of the material. Howard exclaims that something is expensive in nearly every scene and simply seems to lack the material to work with. Many peripheral characters are introduced but never develop or contribute to the story with their only purpose seemingly to deliver a weak punch line. Even the soundtrack is a bit bizarre with an irritating mouth organ theme for Howard that really doesn't gel contrasted with a brass band for other moments.
It's a poor comedy that fails on many levels with even the renowned Frankie Howard unable to salvage anything from this dull comedy which left me with a distinct feeling of boredom and not jumping for joy.
EXTRAS ★★★ Yet again the only feature for this product is re-cut trailers of period films. Intriguing but brief.