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BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films
Alive On Saturday
Directed by Alfred Travers, 1957
London-set comedy thriller involving mistaken identity, Communists, Royalty and a beautiful millionaire's daughter.
A somewhat battered George Pilbeam (Guy Middleton), midway through a challenging wager.
Credits
|
Director Production Company Producer Screenplay Photography |
Alfred Travers Pan Productions Geoffrey Goodhart Brandon Fleming Hilton Craig |
| Cast: Guy Middleton (George Pilbeam); Patricia Owens (Sally Parker); Geoffrey Goodhart (Joseph H. Parker) John Witty (Slade) | |
| 58 mins, 5,215 feet, sound, black & white. | |
Why are we so keen to find it?
Little is known of the director or his films. But it's a very lively sounding comedy-thriller, and as an example of a low-budget British B movie it has quite a curiosity factor to it.
What's it about?
Down on his luck, George Pilbeam has the chance of earning some easy money: all he has to do is stay in a hotel for three days, collecting payment if he is still alive by Saturday. Yet it's not as simple as it sounds, as George discovers when he gets mistaken for a foreign Prince and kidnapped by a gang of thugs.
Here is the most thorough synopsis of the film, from Kinematograph Weekly, 21 February 1957:
George Pilbeam, an impecunious, but optimistic, man about town, runs into Slade, a solicitor friend, who offers him a large sum if he will stay three days at an hotel under an assumed name. George agrees and moves in , but is promptly attacked by thugs, agents for a foreign power, and mistaken for a prince by Joseph H. Parker, a wealthy American. Things soon become even more hectic, but finally the agents are arrested and George wins Parker's attractive daughter, Sally. Calling on Slade for an explanation, George discovers there was no cloak and dagger stuff in his proposition, merely a gesture to help him financially without embarrassment. What happened was pure, if extravagant, coincidence.
Last seen?
We know it was seen in April 1957, its original release date, but no indication can be found that it had a longer cinema life than that one small Spring window.
What else do we know about it?
Little is known about its director, Alfred Travers. Born in Turkey, he began his filmmaking career making short industrial films for the electricity industry and then swiftly changed course with low-budget narrative feature films. He worked steadily, if not prolifically, between the 1940s and 1960s, making his last film in South Africa in 1968.
Does anything survive?
The BFI's Stills, Posters and Design collections holds two stills - the closest we can get today to knowing how the film looked, and the players involved.
Reviews
Reviews were not overly favourable, the highest praise coming from Today's Cinema which judged it "simple to the point of naïveté, but the stars have engaging personalities and the story has a nice fairy-story quality." The Monthly Film Bulletin was less kind, slamming it as an "inexpert comedy thriller, with an inane story," and labelling the acting 'tepid' But it offered faint praise for Guy Middleton who, it said, "wanders amiably through the leading role."
Emma Smart, Periodicals Librarian, BFI National Library
You can find more about British films of the late 1950s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.
Images
From the BFI Stills, Posters and Designs collections
