Starring Peter Noone, Stanley Holloway, Sheila White, and Lance Percival
Directed by Saul Swimmer
Music and Lyrics by various
Let's head north with another popular British band from this era, and one that hits even closer to the Beatles. Like the Beatles, Herman's Hermits were based out of an industrial city in North England - in this case, Manchester - and had numerous hits that continue to be run on oldies stations and Spotify playlists to this day. Unlike the Beatles, the Hermits rarely wrote their own music, and their songs tended to lean more towards upbeat pop ditties, gentle ballads, and vintage music hall numbers.
After having a hit with the wacky Hold On! in 1966, MGM decided to run with those music hall songs, including the title number, and put them in a more traditional musical. How does the story of the Hermits running a race horse - and into lovely ladies - look today? We open with shots of Manchester and the Hermits riding to the racetrack and find out...
The Story: Herman (Noone) and his Hermits each own a stake in Mrs. Brown, a greyhound Herman inherited from his grandfather. They're trying to earn enough money to race her in London, but can barely afford to feed her and themselves. It's even worse when Herman loses his job as a junior executive when the heads of the company don't appreciate him not conforming to their standards. They play gigs to earn the money, including working at the fruit market owned by enthusiastic G.G Brown (Holloway). Peter has a crush on Brown's daughter Judy (Sarah Caldwell) who hopes to be a model, but local girl Tulip (White) has eyes for him.
Peter only has eyes for Mrs. Brown. The dog does well in the Manchester preliminaries, but they still need to earn money to get her into the London races. Even after they earn the money, Peter manages to lose the dog...and Judy when he realizes that her modeling will always come first, before any romance. Tulip's there to help, though, and so is Percy the tramp (Percival), who keeps popping up in the oddest places.
The Song and Dance: This also wound up being a surprise. I was expecting a goofy romp like Help! or the Monkees series. Instead, I got an adorable and very British MGM musical. The supporting cast shines in this one. Holloway has some terrific bits as the grocer who takes the Hermits under his wing, including two major numbers of his own, and there's hilarious Percival as Percy the tramp, Marjorie Rhoades as Herman's supportive and feisty Grandmother Gloria, and White as spotlight-craving Judy. It has a sweetly low-key feel to it that's refreshing in a era of huge musical movies on both sides of the Atlantic, with decent location shooting in the real Manchester and London along with Shepperton Studios.
The Numbers: We open with "It's Nice To Be Out In the Morning" as the guys ride to the race track with Mrs. Brown, and later as they get dressed and have breakfast. The Hermits rehearse the jaunty "Holiday Inn" at an abandoned bus in a junkyard, contrasted with footage of old ladies in bathing suits tossing a beach ball around. "Ooh, She's Done It Again" provides the background for Mrs. Brown's triumphant first race at the track in Manchester and the arrival of G.G Brown.
The film's big hit was the uptempo ballad "There's a Kind of Hush," which provides the backdrop to the scene where Herman is walking through the park, thinking of Sheila and seeing couples falling in love all around them. Herman and the Hermits join the enthusiastic crowd at a local pub to earn money for their London trip to the tune of the delightful music hall ditty "Daisy Chain," which turns into the film's only major chorus routine. Brown teaches the Hermits how to sell "Lemon and Limes" when they can't find a place to stay in London.
Herman claims Sheila is "The Most Beautiful Thing In My Life" during a soft-focus stroll through the park. "The World Is for the Young" is a gently touching rumination on how youths like Tulip and Herman think they've seen everything about love, but older adults know better, performed charmingly by White, Holloway, Rhoades, and Washbourne. We don't get the title song until the end credits. The other major dance number is an instrumental song, performed at a groovy nightclub while Herman's desperately searching for Mrs. Brown. We finally get the title number in the end credits, over shots of Sheila being photographed all over London alternating with the Hermits heading home.
What I Don't Like: Peter Noone continues to be a charming and funny presence onstage to this day, but he's no actor and comes off as either stiff or clueless. The other Hermits have even less to do than Dave Clark's band members did in Having a Wild Weekend. The fluffy plot does make more sense than them chasing rocket scientists in Hold On!, and I do appreciate that Herman doesn't end up with the girl you expect him to get. On the other hand, it's still pretty inconsequential. I really wish they'd done more with some of the advertising parodies early on. We sort of lose that midway through, and they were genuinely funny.
The Big Finale: If you're a fan of Herman's Hermits, British Invasion bands, or love British or MGM musicals from the 50's and 60's, you'll want to give Mrs. Brown a chance at racing fame, too.
Home Media: Easily found on streaming and DVD, the latter from the Warner Archives.
