''The Love Lottery'' is a 1954 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Charles Crichton Charles Ainslie Crichton (6 August 1910 – 14 September 1999) was an English film director and film editor, editor. Born in Wallasey, Cheshire, he became best known for directing many comedies produced at Ealing Studios and had a 40-ye ...

and starring

David Niven James David Graham Niven (; 1 March 1910 – 29 July 1983) was a British actor, soldier, memoirist, and novelist. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Major Pollock in '' Separate Tables'' (1958). Niven's other roles ...

Peggy Cummins Peggy Cummins (born Augusta Margaret Diane Fuller; 18 December 1925 – 29 December 2017) was an Irish actress, born in Wales, who is best known for her performance in Joseph H. Lewis's ''Gun Crazy'' (1950), playing a trigger-happy '' femme f ...

Anne Vernon Anne Vernon (born Édith Antoinette Alexandrine Vignaud; born 7 January 1924) is a French actress. She appeared in 40 films between 1948 and 1970, including three films that were entered into the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. She ...

and

Herbert Lom Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru (11 September 1917 – 27 September 2012), known professionally as Herbert Lom (), was a Czech-British actor who moved to the United Kingdom in 1939. In a career lasting more than 60 ye ...

. Produced by

Ealing Studios Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever ...

it was one of several

Ealing Comedies The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the ...

that veered away from the standard formula. The film examines celebrity and fan worship with an international setting including

Lake Como Lake Como ( it, Lago di Como , ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh de Còmm , ''Cómm'' or ''Cùmm'' ), also known as Lario (; after the la, Larius Lacus), is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the thir ...

, ambitious dream sequences, and an uncredited

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly ei ...

at the end by

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart (; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film In ...

as himself. It was shot in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

. Interiors were shot at Ealing in

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: North Londo ...

with

location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...

around

Como Como (, ; lmo, Còmm, label= Comasco , or ; lat, Novum Comum; rm, Com; french: Côme) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Its proximity to Lake Como and to the Alps ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

standing in for the fictional town of Tremaggio. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...

Thomas N. Morahan and the costumes by Anthony Mendleson. It was released by General Film Distributors as part of a long-standing agreement with Ealing.

Plot

A celluloid heart-throb, who is haunted by dreams and hounded by fans, is manipulated by a gambling syndicate into being the prize in a lottery to find him a wife. But things get complicated when he falls in love before the lottery is drawn.

Cast

as Rex Allerton *

as Sally *

as Jane Dubois *

as André Amico *

Charles Victor Charles Victor (10 February 1896 – 23 December 1965) was a British actor who appeared in many film and television roles between 1931 and 1965. He was born Charles Victor Harvey. Born in Southport, Lancashire, England, Victor was a fourth ...

as Jennings * Gordon Jackson as Ralph * Felix Aylmer as Winant * Hugh McDermott as Rodney Wheeler *

Stanley Maxted Stanley Maxted (21 August 1895 – 10 May 1963) was a British-Canadian soldier, singer, radio producer, journalist and actor. He worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and later for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a ...

as Oliver Stanton *

June Clyde June Clyde (born Ina Parton, December 2, 1909 – October 1, 1987) was an American actress, singer and dancer known for roles in such pre-Code films as ''A Strange Adventure'' (1932) and ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1933). Early years June Clyd ...

as Viola * John Chandos as Gulliver Kee, Chinaman *

Theodore Bikel Theodore Meir Bikel ( ; May 2, 1924 – July 21, 2015) was an Austrian-American actor, folk singer, musician, composer, unionist, and political activist. He appeared in films, including '' The African Queen'' (1951), ''Moulin Rouge'' (1952), ' ...

as Parsimonious * Sebastian Cabot as Suarez *

Eugene Deckers Eugene Francis Deckers (22 October 1917, in Antwerp – 1977, in Paris, France) was a Belgian actor. Career After establishing himself on the British stage, Deckers made his first English language film appearance in 1946. Formerly a romantic ...

as Vernet *

Andreas Malandrinos Andreas Malandrinos ( el, Ανδρέας Μαλανδρίνος; 14 November 1888, in Greece – 11 July 1970, in Surrey) was a Greek-born actor who started appearing in British films from 1930, until his death 40 years later in Surrey, England ...

as Fodor * Nicholas Stuart as American Radio Announcer * Michael Ward as Hotel Receptionist * Helena Pickard as Sally's Mother * Marcel Poncin as Priest * Alexis Chesnakov as The Russian Man * Nelly Arno as the Russian woman *

Gabrielle Blunt Gabrielle Hilda Blunt (8 January 1919 – 10 June 2014) was a British actress. She had a very long career in theatre, film and television mainly working as a character actress appearing in many British television programmes and films. Biography ...

as Doreen * Mark Baker as Maxie *

John Glyn-Jones John Glyn-Jones (28 August 1908 – 21 January 1997) was a British stage, radio, television and film actor. His father, William Glyn-Jones, was a Member of Parliament and he was educated at Bishop's Stortford College and Oxford University. H ...

as Prince Boris *

Hattie Jacques Hattie Jacques (; born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the ''Carry On'' films, where she typically played strict, no-non ...

as Chambermaid * Michael Craig as Cameraman Assistant * Alvar Liddell as Himself *

as Himself

Release

The film was first shown at the Regent Theatre in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

on 21 January 1954, as a royal performance during the New Zealand visit by

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II (1926–2022; ), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms * Queen ...

and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not prod ...

. The UK premiere was at the Gaumont Haymarket in London on 28 January 1954.

Critical reception

The reviewer for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' expressed mixed views after the UK premiere: "The construction of ''The Love Lottery'' is deplorably weak ... and Mr. Charles Crichton, who directs the film for Ealing Studios, is left to make what he can of an idea which could branch out in a number of directions. ... Yet, even if catches are dropped, there is much in ''The Love Lottery'' which beguiles and entertains, The satire at the expense on film publicity methods and of the mentality of the film-fan is, in the Ealing tradition, so mild that a writer such as Mr. Clifford Odets would not recognize that it was there, but it is there, nevertheless, and it scores some palpable, if gentle, hits." Michael Balcoln called it one of the worst movies made at Ealing. Many years later, the US edition of the ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news. The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008. Corporat ...

'' gave the film two out of four stars, calling it a "clever British satire on the Hollywood star system."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Love Lottery, The 1954 films 1954 comedy films British comedy films Ealing Studios films Films directed by Charles Crichton Films scored by Benjamin Frankel Films set in Los Angeles Films set in London Films set in Italy Films shot in Italy Films about filmmaking Films with screenplays by Harry Kurnitz Films about lotteries 1950s English-language films 1950s British films