SOMEWHERE ON LEAVE

GB
1943
1hr 36mins
Dir: John Blakeley
Starring: Frank Randle and Robbie Vincent

Army soldiers spend a weekend in a stately home

This third film in the Somewhere series starts and ends with a railway scene. It opens with a shot of the frontage to London Victoria station and finishes with a scene at Barnes station, with a pre-war 3 SUB EMU leaving (one vehicle of the EMU is No.9720). During the latter half of the film there is a montage sequence featuring several express trains and these shots had been reused from the film Somewhere in Camp, which had been released the previous year (qv). Although Frank Randle was a successful and respected music hall comedian with a good reputation his comedy was purely music hall and did not translate to the silver screen particularly well. The movies are very low-budget and it seems as if someone has basically turned on the camera and sound and then run on till Randle has run out of inspiration as to what to do next. The acting is wooden and the plots very thin and the only real interest in these films now is as an aspect of entertainment which has passed into history. The Somewhere series of not particularly funny or entertaining movies ran to five in total, with a sixth, It’s a Grand Life (qv), following in the same context. This probably replaced Somewhere On Parade, a film that was originally intended as a vehicle for Frank Randle and Dan Young, only to be released in 1949 as What a Carry On! (qv) starring Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warriss. Despite being poor by today’s standards, at least some of the films hold railway content. Barnes station featured here in this movie and in the second film Somewhere in Camp for it was quite near to the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith where all the studio work was carried out.

This is the frontage to London Victoria station, not nearly as imposing as St. Pancras but still instantly recognisable
Blended into this shot of London buses is a GWR express train, possibly passing Pangbourne, which was seen first of all in Somewhere in Camp (1942)……
as was this shot of an express passing a signal box……
and this shot too of a GWR express passing through the countryside. This shot is blended into an image of the entrance to London Victoria….
see. Looking out from beneath London Victoria’s entrance canopy
This is Barnes, with a well-loaded vintage 3 SUB EMU in the platform. Vehicle 9720 belonged to 3 SUB unit 1720, which was a Central Section set originally and one that would not normally have been seen in Barnes, which was on the South Western section.
The electric train pulls out to the accompanying sound of a steam loco! This is Platform 4 at Barnes, with the departing train passing beneath Rocks Lane bridge.