It's In The Bag

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Directed by Herbert Mason, 1943

Riotous farce starring Elsie and Doris Waters, better known as Gert and Daisy.

Gert and Daisy (Elsie and Doris Waters) discuss material matters.

Credits

Director Production Company Producer Screenplay Original Music Clapper Loader	Herbert Mason Butcher's Film Service F.W. Baker (unconfirmed) Con West (unconfirmed) Percival Mackey (unconfirmed) Desmond Davis
Cast: Elsie Waters (Gert); Doris Waters (Daisy); Ernest Butcher (Sam Braithwaite); Lesley Ormond (April Vaughan); Gordon Edwards (Alan West); Reginald Purdell (Joe); Irene Handl (Mrs. Beam); Megs Jenkins (Peach St. Clair)
80 mins, 7,219 feet, sound, black & white.

Why are we so keen to find it?

It sounds like great fun. Cockney housewives Gert and Daisy were a comedy double act formed by sisters Elsie and Doris Waters. After several years as music hall and radio stars, the sisters made three films together - Gert and Daisy's Week-End (1942), Gert and Daisy Clean Up (1942) and the lost It's in the Bag (1943). Elsie and Doris were gifted performers with great comic timing, and their rousing musical numbers remain exhilarating nearly 70 years later. Their influence can be seen in later female comic pairings, from Sharon and Tracy in the BBC sitcom Birds of a Feather to EastEnders' Dot and Ethel. For film historian Wheeler Winston Dixon, "Elsie and Doris Waters are perhaps the most influential social satirists of the period."

Many of the set pieces of It's In the Bag sound genuinely funny, particularly several scenes in which Gert and Daisy embody the theatre personae of a grand dame actress and her (male) child protégé - there are tantalising stills of Gert as the boy, complete with pigtails and pantaloons. The film boasts an impressive supporting cast of character actors, including Ernest Butcher, Reginald Purdell, Irene Handl, Megs Jenkins and Australian-born comic actress Esma Cannon.

What's it about?

Unsurprisingly, the thin plot offers much scope for farce. The poster tagline declares, "Gert, Daisy and Sam in a tustle for a bustle!" Our Cockney duo sell an old dress, not realising £2,000 in notes is stashed within, and when the dress is loaned to a theatre they try to reclaim the bounty by masquerading as stage actors. Meanwhile their landlady's son hears of the cash and is hot on their heels, as are the police.

The press book gives a more detailed synopsis:

"Gert & Daisy, two factory workers, sell an old dress left by their grandmother, only to learn - just as they are due for parade with the Women's Training Corps - that the sum of £2,000 is hidden in the bustle. Their frantic endeavours to regain possession of the garment lead them to a theatre in the North of England, where Sam Braithwaite is producing an old-time drama. The elusive dress evades them with comic persistence and necessitates Gert & Daisy masquerading as two Guest stars from London, Rose Trelawney and her infant prodigy, Peach St. Clare. Although knowing little or nothing of stage technique, Gert & Daisy find themselves obliged to rehearse and play the parts of "Lady Hilary" and her delicate son, "Cedric". In order to cover up their shortcomings, they pretend to be highly temperamental, and Sam Briathwaite has a hectic time trying to produce his play, "The Finger of Scorn". To make the matter more difficult for Gert & Daisy, their Landlady's ne'er-do-well son, Joe, has got to know about the hidden fortune and has come to the theatre in order to get his hands on the dress before they do. As an alibi for getting back-stage, Joe makes a play for April Vaughan, the pretty ingénue of the company, much to the annoyance of her fiancé, 2nd Lieut. Alan West. On the opening night of the drama, everything goes wrong for Sam Braithwaite. His Heavy Man is unable to appear, and he has to play the part of the villain himself. Gert & Daisy burlesque their roles to the detriment of the play, but obviously to the amusement of the audience. The police arrive to arrest Gert & Daisy for being absent from their work without leave, and also to charge Same with engaging artistes contrary to regulations and not through the correct channels. The real actresses turn up and the climax is reached with the sirens giving the warning of an impending air raid. Sam tries to carry on with the drama and man the fire-fighting squad at the same time. Thus, while the heroine is proclaiming that retribution has come to the dead villain, we see the "corpse" crawling off the stage to put on his tin helmet and grab a stirrup pump. In spite of a huge D.A. bomb landing on the stage, the players blissfully carry on with their lines. The eventual explosion proves to be a blessing in disguise, as indirectly it prevents Joe from landing his plunder, and instead gives Gert & Daisy the chance to come into their own at the triumphant finish."

Last seen?

Contemporary reviews in the Monthly Film Bulletin and Kinematograph Weekly date from early December 1943, although IMDB cites 7 February 1944 as the theatrical release date. According to BFI records, the film was shown on American television on 23 July 1953.

Does anything survive?

Two press books - one featuring reviews, another providing cast and crew information and a plot synopsis - are held in the BFI's Special Collections. A few stills exist, showing the sale of the dress, the duo in their disguises and what appears to be a bawdy sing-a-long in a canteen.

Reviews

Contemporary reviews were largely positive. The Monthly Film Bulletin praises the performances: "During the whole film, both Gert and Daisy are well up to their usual form, fooling and back-chatting... They contribute, too, quite an attractive song. The rest of the cast, and particularly Ernest Butcher as an overwrought theatrical producer, aid and abet to the best of their ability".

Today's Cinema also hails the film's unpretentious, populist comedy, and its send-up of theatre tradition, albeit with a hint of a suppressed sneer about its imagined audience: "Jovial light entertainment for the masses, with clear-cut stellar pull... it is the ensuing development of theatrical masquerade that provides the comedy backbone, for here the eccentricities of rehearsals, the burlesque and knockabout of the actual performance... are surely good for those guffaws which spell the riotous delight of the populace".

The cover of the film's press report boasts a less qualified compliment from the Daily Film Renter: "This is one of the Best Slapstick Productions from a British Studio we have had for a long time".

Alex Davidson, Curator (Mediatheque), BFI National Archive

You can find more about British films of the early 1940s, 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.