Gutsy lass Gracie rallies fellow stall-holders at Birkenhead Market to prevent its takeover and demolition by a department store chain. She invokes the Market's foundation by Royal Charter just before an inadvertent gas leak provides an explosive climax.
Gracie Fields Alfred Drayton Vivien Leigh Douglas Wakefield Billy Nelson Harry Tate Huntley Wright Robb Wilton Morris Harvey Maud Gill Norman Walker Tommy Fields Helen Ferrers Kenneth Kove Jack Melford D.J. Williams Frank Atkinson Florence Gregson Arthur Hambling James Harcourt Anthony Holles Mike Johnson Kenneth More Patricia Russell Ernest Sefton
UK
UK
I love that for a few years in the 30s, the highest paid movie star in the world was a working class, brassy Rochdale lass with a shrill soprano, generous jawline, and a saucy wink.
Look Up and Laugh is a charming comedy about protest: small traders standing up to bullies and forging solidarity in the depression years – boosted by inventive staging and a strong sense of what it means to be choral, to join voices together as one.
Look up and laugh, be happy, bright and gay.
Imagine the sun is shining every day.
Even though we have to strive– gee, it's good to be alive.
Altogether now, laugh your troubles away.
2021 February (a song & dance month for me): See my Hits & Misses Here
5.5/10
Best Song: 'Love Is Everywhere'
Performer: Gracie Fields
The song 'Looking on the Bright Side' by Gracie Fields is catchier than the song above, but by the 4th version of in in this movie I had had enough of it. I can understand the need for rear projection filming in the past, but why did filmmakers think that an actor sitting in a stationary plane while scenery flies past behind and the fake plane continues to narrowly miss hitting things was suspenseful or entertaining?
This movie had parts that were fairly good, and there is some acting in the movie (by Alfred Drayton and Tommy Fields), but the 3 Stooges tone of most of the rest of the movie is disappointing.
If you are a big Gracie Fields fan I suppose the movie would be more enjoyable for you.
Look Up and Laugh may be my favourite film from the filmography of Gracie Fields. I found it to be a delightfully fun experience. Before watching it, I though Look Up and Laugh would be just another typical Gracie Fields film. I'm happy to say that while Look Up and Laugh does appear to be that at first, it becomes something much more enjoyable and amusing. Despite this, Look Up and Laugh does have a number of flaws.
The film follow Gracie Pearson, a successful stage performer, who returns to her home town to enjoy a little holiday. However, when she arrives there is trouble brewing. First, she has to use all of her hard-earned money to pay for part…
Gracie delivers a little too much Gracie. A full on folksy Gracie Fields comedy-musical fighting to keep their old market place alive. Ton of songs and goofing around without much control. Has it's moments of rhythm and high-pitch vocal exercises, but I like my Gracie a little more restricted.
English musical comedy starring Depression morale booster Gracie Fields. In a fitting mirror of life, Fields plays a music hall performer consumed by charitable endeavours. Here that means becoming a loud, lively advocate for her local market stallholders at risk of replacement by a big, modern, moneyed department store. At first the result is "just fair, so-so," as some stallholders sing, but it grows quite likable and amusing thanks to its communal sentiments and parish-pump endearments. Also notable for featuring a young Vivien Leigh.
