Jumping For Joy Review

• 22nd Jun 2011

Jumping for Joy is a slapstick comedy film originally released in 1956 and starring the now legendary Frankie Howerd, Stanley Holloway and Lionel Jeffries.  Set in the world of greyhound doping this rather oddball film is a curious watch on the whole.

Frankie Howard stars as loveable idiot Willie Joy who, having adopted a hurt greyhound, is kicked out of his lodgings as a result. He hooks up with conman Captain Jack Montague (Stanley Holloway) who teaches Willie how to make some nice cash down at the track. This leads to Willy being hired by the mob to place bets on dogs doped up to their eyeballs ensuring massive returns. In the middle of all this his adopted dog is getting better and faster and may actually win the much coveted cup race in a few weeks.

Directed by comedy legend John Paddy Carstairs this feels like a Norman Wisdom vehicle minus the great man himself. Carstairs went on to direct many Wisdom-driven comedies that became an industry in itself for over 15 years. Howard is no replacement for the comedy genius of Norman Wisdom and mainly oohs and ahs his way through the majority of the picture. This Frankie is pre-Lurkio so his star identity was still to be honed.

The film itself is just weird as the action moves from the dog track to an abandoned railway car that Holloway’s conman has purchased, to a gangland bar, then back to the track. The narrative does make you question what exactly the writer was thinking and why on earth it received backing by a studio. Possibly at the time dog racing was very popular with the masses but outside the living rooms of Danny Dyer and Vinnie Jones this isn’t the case today.

The shocking thing about Jumping for Joy is that it was actually made in 1956 just a couple of years before the New Wave of British film began. This looks and feels like a film from a previous decade with a total lack of the extreme reality that took over by the 60s. The performances all lean heavily on a vaudeville style with Howard the worst of all as the totally camp but straight Willie. Holloway and Jeffries add a touch of class but on the whole it’s a little bit silly and dated.

The comedy is extremely innocent and lacks the social significance of Carstairs work with Wisdom. My main complaint though lies with Howard’s central performance in that I simply find to be annoying and tiresome. After the success of the Up Pompeii TV series he would go on to star in a range of Up films that were comedy classics that I still love to this day. Jumping for Joy simply doesn’t utilise the great Frankie Howerd in the best way possible and the story is just too disjointed and dull to make a significant impact.

Aled Jones