Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Hue and Cry Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 17, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Alastair Sim's School for Laughter: 4 Classic Comedies.

Chances are if you are like many, maybe even most, American filmgoers, you tend to associate Alastair Sim with one thing and one thing only: his inimitable portrayal of one Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 version of Charles Dickens' immortal A Christmas Carol. A few outliers might have vague memories of Sim in such underappreciated gems as Green for Danger (a film where he notably wasn’t even given above the title billing) or even his latter day stint in The Ruling Class, but quite a bit of the rest of Sim’s multi-decade long filmography just doesn’t seem to be that well known by the public at large on this side of the pond. Film Movement has now come to the rescue in that regard and assembled four charming Sim comedies that bridge the years of 1947 to 1960, and which offer a fine assortment of well written, performed and directed outings that have a few linking elements besides Sim himself, including plots sometimes centered around the quest for riches, and occasionally with some chicanery and other shenanigans involved.

Even if some feel this film doesn't completely knock it out of the ballpark, Hue and Cry is a really interesting addition to this set for a number of reasons, one of which may strike modern day viewers as unintentionally funny or even provocative. Hue and Cry is often cited (rightly or wrongly) as being the first so-called “Ealing comedy”, one that arguably presages later efforts like The Lavender Hill Mob in terms of also featuring a criminality element that lends certain suspense aspects to the tale. What is salient about this being the first Ealing comedy, though, is that it was shot in either late 1946 or early 1947 (its official release was in late February 1947, so I’m assuming late 1946 for the shoot), and it makes liberal use of London locations that are still piles of rubble in the wake of the then recent end of World War II. That lends an almost weirdly apocalyptic element to a tale that is otherwise wrapped up in a comic book called — and here’s the part that may strike contemporary eyes as kind of unexpectedly funny — Trump that is being used to convey secret coded messages to a gang, something that comes to the attention of a coterie of kids who read the magazine.

Hue and Cry relies on a conceit that has been a feature of any number of films, including outings as different from this one as Invaders from Mars, where a kid knows something nefarious is going on, but he can’t get any rational adult to believe him. In this case it’s a boy named Joe Kirby (Harry Fowler) who figures out that Trump is being used as a messenger service of sorts to dole out orders to a bunch of thieves. Without posting outright spoilers, suffice it to say that when some adults finally do get involved, their motives might not be entirely pure. This is one part of the film that perhaps can't help but telegraph itself, though the extent of various subterfuges may strike some as extreme and contrived.

In the meantime, though, Joe is able to recruit a gaggle of other kids, and they even manage to meet the writer of the comic, an eccentric named Felix Wilkinson (Alastair Sim, in what almost amounts to a glorified cameo), who is initially clueless about how his original work is being altered to deliver coded messages. The film is arguably a bit over convoluted, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some viewers didn’t classify this as an out and out “comedy”, though there were some scenes that cracked me up, including some dealing with a "hostage" the kids take, for a moment, anyway. And my hunch is the film's final sight gag, which calls back to its opening shot, will probably provoke laughter in most. But the settings and underlying tension of kids who can’t really trust any of the adults give this film a rather distinctive flavor.

Hue and Cry Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hue and Cry is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Film Movement Classics, an imprint of Film Movement, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. As has been the case with several Film Movement releases I've reviewed, the insert booklet offers only a generic "new digital restoration" in terms of providing any technical information on the transfer. All of the releases in this set bear a StudioCanal logo, and I'm assuming this was probably culled from the same master as the UK Blu-ray release StudioCanal put out in 2015, which would suggest something that may not be strictly "new". That said, this is another very pleasing looking presentation, one that offers good detail levels across the board, though some relatively wide shots of the still bombed out London can lack significant amounts of fine detail at times. There are some minor contrast variations between the location work outside and the studio bound sequences, but on the whole blacks are very deep and gray scale nicely modulated. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation. A few kind of playful opticals can look a bit wonky (see screenshot 6), but on the whole this a nicely sharp and well detailed looking transfer.

Hue and Cry Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hue and Cry features an LPCM 2.0 mono track that has some of the same slightly boxy sounding characteristics as several of the other tracks in this set, but which offers dialogue cleanly and clearly, as well as providing decent support for Georges Auric's score. There's some very minor brashness in the upper registers (something else that shows up in some of the other tracks in this set), but I noticed no outright damage or distortion. Unfortunately, this release does not offer optional subtitles for those who might benefit from them.

Hue and Cry Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Steve Chibnall (1080p; 6:23) offers some background on the production from the Professor of British Cinema at De Monfort University.


• Location Featurette (1080p; 9:06) features film historian Richard Dacre as a tourguide of various locations utilized in the film.

Additionally, the insert booklet that comes with Alastair Sim's School for Laughter: 4 Classic Comedies includes an essay about all four films in the set. As with many Film Movement releases, there's the About Film Movement option on the Main Menu which provides some text and a trailer.

Hue and Cry Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hue and Cry only features Sim in passing, but it has a number of other kind of fascinating elements to recommend it. The use of the devastated London locations really gives this film a kind of off kilter, slightly scary feeling, ambience that helps to promote an almost paranoiac fear that runs rampant through the story as the kids find themselves fighting a battle that no adult figure of authority seems interested in. Technical merits are generally solid, and the two on disc supplements very interesting. Recommended.