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A summary of Cavalcade of Variety from the BFI :
BFI | Film & TV Database | CAVALCADE OF VARIETY (1941)
CAVALCADE OF VARIETY
FILM HISTORY
The name of director Thomas Bentley does not appear on-screen, but he is cited as director of the film in the 'Kinematograph Weekly' of 26 December 1940. If this is the case he must have directed the scenes with Peter Brough.
Production Company
�[not cited]; [logo] a Butcher-Empire production; Butcher's Film Service Limited presents; [end] [logo] a Butcher-Empire production
NFA Catalogue
VARIETY.
Ventriloquist Peter Brough, with his dummy 'Jimmy', introduces a number of variety acts. This is a compilation film using extracts from three earlier films, VARIETY (1935), VARIETY PARADE (1936) and MUSIC HALL PARADE (1939). Only the linking segments with Brough were newly filmed for this presentation. Rl.1. BBFC certificate (7). Main credits (consists only of production company and the acts appearing, no technical credits) superimposed over footage of Billy Cotton and his Band (45). Continuation of the band playing, and then Cotton introduces the 'Danube Swing', an up-tempo version of Strauss's 'Blue Danube'. This also includes a routine from the black tap dancer Ellis Jackson (244). Peter Brough emerges from behind stage curtains to introduce the next act but is heckled by 'Jimmy' who is sitting in a theatre box. After Brough has introduced the Sherman Fisher Girls, he climbs into the box with the dummy where he remains for the rest of the film to introduce the acts (320). The Sherman Fisher Girls dance to a number played by Billy Cotton and his Band (436). Peter Brough comedy routine and the introduction of the next act (505). Eve Becke sings 'Angelino Piccolino' (709). Motorcycle stunt team The Four Air Aces perform routine. One of the team rides a motorcycle at high speed around a circular frame to which is attached another section of the frame on which the other three team members perform acrobatics as the frame spins. The conclusion of the act sees the motorcycle, plus seated rider, also spinning around as the frame revolves (1040). Brough routine and introduction of next act (1073). Singer/comedian Bobbie Henshaw plays his ukelele and cracks jokes, beginning with song 'Poll Parrot Rag', which includes Henshaw's impressions of that bird, and ends with his version of Sousa's 'Stars and Stripes For Ever' (1346). Rl.2. Comedy routine with Sam Barton, in clown makeup and tattered baggy clothing, and his collapsing bicycle (495). Brough routine and introduction of next act (522). The Radio Three, a female singing trio who perform 'These Foolish Things'. One is seated playing a piano, while the other two stand behind her (664). Brough routine and introduction of next act (742). Comedy sketch with Frank E. Franks and a woman playing husband and wife, the latter the dominating half who keeps hitting Franks throughout most of the routine, with him falling to the floor. Set in one room of a house, complete with a bed, the sketch starts with the wife demanding her husband hand over his dole money. It then develops into the couple trying to avoid the payment of money owing to a tailor and the landlord who come calling. They avoid handing over money owing to those individuals first by the husband pretending to be dead on the bed, and then by the woman. Their scheme is undermined when the tailor and the landlord meet in a pub and discover that they have been fooled and return to demand their money, only to find both the husband and wife now pretending to be dead [Note that the condition of the film during this sketch is particularly bad, and one of the callers in the routine is missing altogether, only being seen very briefly from behind as he leaves the room] (1467). Brough routine and introduction of next act (1545). Phyllis Robins, accompanied by a pianist, sings 'When I Grow Up' (1673). Brough routine and introduction of next act (1722). Sketch with the Arnaut Brothers. Both are dressed in feathered costumes as birds, and the whole routine is of them communicating to each other with bird whistle noises. Patrcia Faye makes a brief appearance at the beginning when she opens a bird house in which one of the brothers is standing (2020). Rl.3. G.S. Melvin, in drag as a Brown Owl, performs a musical number called 'The Old Fleecy Lined', and a comedy routine with a group of young Girl Guides (408). Brough routine and introduction of next act (426). Tom Gamble in comedy sketch entitled 'The Solicitor'. Located in an office set where Gamble, a painter and decorator, has also set himself up as a solicitor. His first case is with a wife whose husband is seeing another woman. After first interviewing the wife, the husband calls around to the office where Gamble is successful in reuniting the couple. The sketch concludes when Gamble goes to pay a call on the 'other woman' himself (964). Brough routine and introduction of next act, referred to by Brough as 'Macari and his Dutch Accordions' (1011). Macari and his band of accordionists are dressed in traditional Dutch costume. The act includes the band's drummer singing 'Tulip Time' while in drag, although still traditional costume. The act is interrupted twice by short comedy routines from Brough and his dummy (1151). Brough routine, which includes a line about how the Dutch people will soon regain their freedom, and introduction of next act (1181). Impressionist Ernest Shannon singing version of the song 'Four and Twenty Blackbirds' as himself, and then doing impressions as Claude and Jack Hulbert and Gordon Harker [A lot of footage is missing from this routine, and is not complete, Shannon's impression of George Robey being absent] (1324). Rl.4. Brough routine [very short as most is missing] (7). Song and dance man Jack Stanford sings 'I'm Nuts About Screwy Music' and dances in 'India rubberman' style (92). Brough routine and introduction of next act (124). Musical comedy routine with Noni and Horace, the former in clown makeup and playing the piano, while the latter plays the violin and is dressed formally in a dinner suit (388). Brough routine and introduction of the next act (426). The Empire Girls dance a can-can routine to 'Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay' (497). Brough routine and introduction of final act (517). Mrs. Jack Hylton and her band perform 'Taking a Stroll Around the Park', with Hylton on vocals. The routine includes various people walking around the stage as if strolling in a park (666). Hylton then sings 'Let's All Go Up in the Sky', with the Sherman Fisher Girls doing a tap dance routine. The number concludes with the appearance of both Army and Navy brass bands joining in on the performing of the song (858). "THE END" "A BUTCHER Empire PRODUCTION" (867) (5557ft). Notes: There are many jumps in the film owing to missing footage, other than the cases cited in the above synopsis. The Sherman Fisher Girls are not credited in the opening titles, but they are introduced by Peter Brough when they perform with Billy Cotton and his Band. 'Macari' and 'The Empire Girls' are credited as such in the opening titles, but they are introduced by Peter Brough as 'Macari and his Dutch Accordions' and 'The New Empire Dancing Girls' respectively. The various acts featured in CAVALCADE OF VARIETY appeared in the earlier films as follows: VARIETY (1935); Bobbie Henshaw, Sam Barton, Phyllis Robins, and The Empire Girls. VARIETY PARADE (1936): The Radio Three, G.S. Melvin, Ernest Shannon, Noni, and Mrs. Jack Hylton. MUSIC HALL PARADE (1939): Billy Cotton and his Band, Eve Becke, The Four Air Aces, Frank E. Franks, The Arnaut Brothers, Tom Gamble, Macari, and Jack Stanford. The following acts also appear in the compilation film DOWN MELODY LANE (1943): Billy Cotton and his Band, Eve Becke, The Four Air Aces, and Mrs Jack Hylton and her Band (in a truncated version of the number 'Let's All Go Up in the Sky').
