Keep Smiling (1938 film) explained

Keep Smiling
Director:	Monty Banks
Producer:	Robert Kane
Starring:	Gracie Fields Mary Maguire Roger Livesey Peter Coke Jack Donohue
Music:	Bretton Byrd
Cinematography:	Mutz Greenbaum
Editing:	James B. Clark
Studio:	20th Century-Fox
Distributor:	20th Century-Fox
Runtime:	83 minutes
Country:	United Kingdom
Language:	English

Keep Smiling is a 1938 British comedy film directed by Monty Banks and starring Gracie Fields, Roger Livesey and Mary Maguire. The film follows a group of performers who club together to buy a bus and travel around the country doing shows after they are cheated out of money by an ex-manager.

Cast

• Gracie Fields as Gracie Gray
• Roger Livesey as Bert Wattle
• Mary Maguire as Avis Maguire
• Peter Coke as Rene Sigani
• Jack Donohue as Denis Wilson
• Hay Petrie as Jack
• Mike Johnson as Charlie
• Eddie Gray as Silvo
• Tommy Fields as The Three Bolas
• Gladys Dehl as The Three Bolas
• Nino Rossini as The Three Bolas
• Edward Rigby as Silas Gray
• Joe Mott as Bill Sneed
• Philip Leaver as De Courcy
• Gus McNaughton as Eddie Perkins
• Paula Rae Wright (Paula Raymond age 14) as Bettina Bowman
• Carol Adams as Dancer
• Joss Ambler as Max
• Monty Banks as Auditioner
  • Hal Gordon Wilfrid Hyde-White as Assistant hotel clerk
• Eliot Makeham as Printer
• Julian Vedey as Hotel clerk

Production

It was the second film made by Fields under her contract with 20th Century-Fox. It was made at Pinewood Studios^[1] with sets designed by the art director Oscar Friedrich Werndorff. It was retitled Smiling Along to avoid confusion with another film with the same name, released by Fox in America the same year, and starring Jane Withers.

Bibliography

• Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
• Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.

Notes and References

1. Wood p.89