A Run for Your Money

source: A Run for Your Money

Moviecut—A Run for Your Money

A Run for Your Money

2 welsh miner brothers win £200 and a trip to London. There they accidentally separate with one falling for a confidence trixter, the other getting stuck with a drunken Hugh Griffiths and his harp - fun unsues. A youngish Alec Guiness is the reporter covering their story. Amiable Ealing comedy with some occasional witty asides - Houston the miner admiring the headroom on the underground - but it lacks the sharpness of the batch of other Ealing comedies around at that time eg Passport to Pimlico, showing at the cinema they visit. The leads are fine though with Houston just 20 years away from getting his teeth kicked in by Richard Burton atop a cable car Pleasant enough diversion

Largely forgotten compared to Ealing's other comedies from 1949 (passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore, and Kind Hearts and Coronets), A Run for Your Money is still an entertaining picture thanks to enthusiastic performances from Donald Houston, Meredith Edwards and Hugh Griffith. Alec Guinness is more subdued, but still contributes some comic moments.

I Purchased the Film about eight years ago from America, unable to obtain a copy in Britain at that time. A lovely down to earth story about two welsh miners going at that time to the big city (London) after winning a mining competition. Some great welsh hymns were sung during the film (four part harmony) long gone by today's rugby supporters. The story was written by Clifford Evans (Actor) who lived in my home town of Llanelli for a number of years.(Llanelli is mentioned by actor Meredith Edwards on the train taking them to London) The valleys are back green again.(Happy memories of past times))

This is a wonderful early post-war example of what would become staple 1950s comedies - one of the first from Ealing Studios - it has an innocence and freshness, as well as genuine laughs and charm, that hold up well nearly 70 years later. Two Welsh miners win the Daily Echo's prize for the most productive miners in Britain and head up to London to collect the enormous sum of £200 - as innocents in London they get separated and the one meets a gorgeous girl on the make, and the other a broken-down Welsh harpist. They are all chased by a bemused Alec Guinness as the gardening correspondent out of his métier. All in all this foreshadows the great comedies of the 1950 - but it is a very lovely example of the genre - full of joy, energy, even some farce, and lots of very beautiful music - this is one to enjoy with a nice cup of tea and a roaring fire!