WHAT EVERY WOMAN WANTS (1954)

GB
1954
1hr 26mins
Dir: Maurice Elvey
Starring: Brian Rix and Brenda de Banzie

A newly married couple have to live with the wifes parents and extended family in a small overcrowded house

This entertaining domestic comedy drama was based on the play Relations Are Best Apart by Edwin Lewis, but should not be confused with the other British comedy film of the same name that was released in 1962 – qv. This warm hearted film features some rather interesting railway scenes which open with the by now familiar panoramic view of a foundry, where at least five small industrial saddle tank locos are visible. This shot first appeared in The Man in the White Suit (1951), and later in I’m All Right Jack (1959), but in this film it appears twice! There then follows a shot of an 0-6-0ST shunting wagons in the yard at Tidal Basin, though it is somewhat obscured by the credits, as is the passenger train that is passing out of shot in the next. The credits finish with a view of an industrial site, and another saddle tank is just visible in the bottom of the picture. The family house in the film is located on Bradfield Road, Silvertown, and in one view a mixed freight can be seen running along North Woolwich Road on the Silvertown Tramway hauled by a former LNER J68 0-6-0T. Another freight train is then later seen moving slowly along the road as Elsie Albin arrives at the front gate.

This is the shot that opens the film. It is also seen in The Man in the White Suit (1951), and I’m All Right Jack (1959), and it appears again later in this movie too. At least five saddle tank locos are visible.
Behind the names, some familiar and some less so, an 0-6-0ST is captured hard at work shunting wagons in Tidal Basin Yard. The old post office on Tidal Basin Road is on the right. This view is actually taken from the footbridge of the old Tidal Basin station, which had closed on 15th September 1943 courtesy of the Luftwaffe.
A local passenger train passes through the site of Tidal Basin on its way to North Woolwich, but the tank loco on the front is passing out of shot
In the extreme bottom right of this picture of an industrial site, a small saddle tank loco simmers
Patric Doonan and Edwin Richfield cross Bradfield Road as a mixed freight runs along the Silvertown Tramway and the North Woolwich Road. The tank locomotive appears to be a former LNER J68 0-6-0.
As Elsie Albin arrives at the front gate, another mixed freight moves slowly along the road behind her. Elsie Albin was Swedish, and her name appears in the film as Elsy Albiin.