{{Short description|1942 British film by Herbert Mason}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}} {{Use British English|date=June 2016}} {{Infobox film | name = Back-Room Boy | image = Back-Room Boy FilmPoster.jpeg | caption = DVD cover, with Withers in the centre and Askey at the far right | director = Herbert Mason | producer = Edward Black | story = J.O.C. Orton | screenplay = Marriott Edgar<br />Val Guest<br />J.O.C. Orton | narrator = | starring = Arthur Askey<br />Moore Marriott<br />Graham Moffatt | music = Hans May | cinematography = Jack E. Cox | editing = R. E. Dearing | studio = Gainsborough Pictures | distributor = General Film Distributors | released = {{film date|1942|4|17|United Kingdom|1947|2|10|Sweden|df=y}} | runtime = 82 minutes | country = United Kingdom | language = English<br / >German | budget = | gross = }} '''''Back-Room Boy''''' is a 1942 British comedy mystery film directed by Herbert Mason, produced by Edward Black for Gainsborough Pictures and distributed by General Film Distributors.<ref name="edward">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-british-film-moguls-ted-black/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|date=1 December 2024|access-date=1 December 2024|title=Forgotten British Film Moguls: Ted Black}}</ref> The cast includes Arthur Askey, Googie Withers, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott.<ref name="BFIsearch">{{Cite web |title=Back-Room Boy |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150024153 |access-date=28 July 2024 |website=British Film Institute Collections Search}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iux6eL3lnr8 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/Iux6eL3lnr8 |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Back Room Boy 1942|publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> It marked the film debut of Vera Frances. The original story was written by J.O.C. Orton, Marriott Edgar and Val Guest. A man from the Met Office is sent to a lighthouse on a remote Scottish island to monitor the weather, where he hopes to escape from women, but soon finds the island overrun by them.
''Back-Room Boy'' was released to cinemas in the United Kingdom on 17 April 1942.<ref name = RadioTimes >{{cite web |author1=David Parkinson |title=Back Room Boy (1942) |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-gt6ffo/back-room-boy/ |website=radiotimes.com |publisher=RadioTimes.com |access-date=18 May 2022}}</ref>
==Plot== Meteorologist Arthur Pilbeam's fiancée Betty, breaks their engagement because he does not spend enough time with her due to having to attend at the BBC every hour, on the hour, for his vital job of creating the BBC pips. He is so upset, he uses the pips to play "Shave and a Haircut". When he is reprimanded, he tries to resign, but this is refused, but when he says he wants to avoid all women, he is posted to a remote Scottish lighthouse to make weather reports. Before taking a boat from the mainland, he is warned by the locals that he will go mad from the isolation and the curse of a mermaid within a month, as his predecessors have. He still goes to the island, but as soon as he lands he is disturbed as most of his baggage disappears.
Pilbeam realises he is not as isolated as he thought and meets Jane, a young girl who stowed away on the boat that brought him to the island, and then Bobbie, a model and the sole survivor of a torpedoed ship. His radio disappears and Bobbie sees a man tied up in a cupboard, but he also seems to disappear when she shows Pilbeam. Another boatload of women plus some crewmen, arrive from Bobbie's ship. This makes it very crowded in the lighthouse, until people start to mysteriously disappear during the night, leaving an anxious Pilbeam trying to discover what has happened to everyone.
It turns out that Nazi agents have been secretly sweeping the nearby waters of mines and have taken everyone else prisoner. They leave Pilbeam free and force him to send away a rescue party without arousing suspicion. But between Pilbeam, Jane's uncle (from the neighbouring island) and the women, they manage to turn the tables on their captors. They tie the Germans up and set out on the German boat. On the way back to the mainland, however, they come across an enemy warship in the fog. The Germans mistake them for their own spies and order them to guide them through the minefield. Their small boat is able to avoid the mines but the ship strikes a mine and sinks.
Pilbeam returns to London a hero, to find Betty has been given his old job on the pips. Having apparently rebuffed him, she plays "Shave and a Haircut" and he rushes off to see her.
==Cast== * Arthur Askey as Arthur Pilbeam * Moore Marriott as Jerry (Jeremiah Percy Cecil Frobisher) * Graham Moffatt as Albert * Googie Withers as Bobbie * Vera Frances as Jane * Joyce Howard as Betty * John Salew as Steve Mason * George Merritt as Uncle * Aubrey Mallalieu (uncredited) as West * D. J. Williams (uncredited) as McIntyre
==Production== Arthur Askey replaced Will Hay when Hay moved from Gainsborough to Ealing Studios before the Second World War.<ref>Mayer, 2003, p. 16</ref> Filming took place at Gaunt-British Studios, Lime Grove Studios and Shepherd's Bush, London, England. The films sets were designed by the art director Walter Murton.
==Reception== In his book about 1940s British cinema, ''Realism and Tinsel'', Robert Murphy describes the film as "the funniest if the least original of the Askey comedies".{{sfn|Murphy|1989|p=196}} ''Halliwell's Film Video & DVD Guide'' describes the film as a "[fairly] spirited star comedy of interest as a shameless rip-off of ''The Ghost Train'' and ''Oh Mr Porter!''."{{sfn|Walker|2004|p=55}} In ''Beacons in the Dark'', film historian Robyn Ludwig critiques the film as "symptomatic of homophobic and chauvinistic undercurrents in Great Britain during the war".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://governmentcheese.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11:beacons-in-the-dark-lighthouse-iconography-in-wartime-british-cinema&catid=11&Itemid=111|title=Beacons in the Dark: Lighthouse Iconography in Wartime British Cinema (1941-1942)|website=Governmentcheese.ca}}</ref> David Parkinson in Radio Times said, "The main problem is the film's insistence on hammering home every gag, with Askey particularly at fault."<ref name = RadioTimes /> However, he praised the subsidiary action between Moffatt and Marriott and Googie Withers' performance.<ref name = RadioTimes />
==Home media== ''Back-Room Boy'' was released on DVD on 19 February 2007.<ref>{{cite web |title=Back Room Boy [DVD] |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Room-Boy-Arthur-Askey/dp/B000L43AYS |website=amazon.co.uk |publisher=Amazon.co.uk}}</ref> The film was also released in the Arthur Askey Collection box set on DVD in 2007 in the United Kingdom, followed by another edition in 2012.
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last=Mayer |first=Geoff |title=Guide to British Cinema |date=2003 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group}} * {{cite book |last=Murphy |first=Robert |title=Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain, 1939-1949 |date=1989 |publisher=Routledge}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Walker |editor-first=John |title=Halliwell's Film Video & DVD Guide |date=2004 |publisher=HarperCollins Entertainment |edition=19th}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0034488|Back-Room Boy}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20190505105745/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a46729b ''Back-Room Boy''] at the British Film Institute{{better source needed|reason=Help request: a live link can be searched for at https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/search/expert - if available, replace the archive URL with the live link. Or if none found, remove this 'better source needed' template. | date=October 2023}} *{{Internet Archive film | BACKROOMBOYVideoQualityUpgrade | Back-Room Boy }} * [https://www.parkcircus.com/film/104117-Back-Room-Boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at Park Circus * [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/back-room-boy-v84264 ''Back-Room Boy''] at AllMovie * [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/back_room_boy ''Back-Room Boy''] at Rotten Tomatoes
{{Herbert Mason}} {{Gainsborough Pictures}} {{Marriott Edgar}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Back-Room Boy}} Category:1942 films Category:1942 comedy films Category:1942 British films Category:1942 English-language films Category:1940s spy comedy films Category:British black-and-white films Category:British spy comedy films Category:English-language spy comedy films Category:Films directed by Herbert Mason Category:Films scored by Hans May Category:Films set in Scotland Category:Films shot at Lime Grove Studios Category:Films with screenplays by Marriott Edgar Category:Gainsborough Pictures films Category:World War II films made in wartime