Half A Sixpence

Product Information

Time Out London says, "the film lays on the period charm rather exhaustingly, and the songs ... don't exactly sweep you along." [19] Box office [ edit ]

The piece received a five-star review from WhatsOnStage when it hit the West End, being described as"a charming night out that is certain to warm the chilliest of London evenings this winter. The musical of the year." sold to Gulf & Western. Half a Sixpence should have been a small and intimate picture. It turned out to be anything but that. The director and the star ran away with it, and I was virtually out of the picture. I was very unhappy about the whole situation." [6] Production [ edit ] I Don't Believe A Word of It"/"I'm Not Talking to You," performed by Ann and Friends, Artie, Pearce, and Apprentices The show was created to fulfill a licensing requirement of CTV’s Vancouver station, CIVT, which originally promised, as an independent station, to produce 20 episodes of an anthology series entitled The Storytellers. Only ten such episodes were produced. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission did not agree that CIVT’s new network programming supplanted this commitment and asked the station to fulfill its promise. CTV believed the anthology would be more successful as a series with common characters, and Robson Arms was the result.The show is based on H.G. Wells's 1905 novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul. Steele played Arthur Kipps, an orphan who unexpectedly inherits a fortune, and climbs the social ladder before losing everything and realising that you just can't buy happiness. In Victorian England, a young orphan, Arthur Kipps ("Artie"), finds a sixpence as he walks along a river with his young friend, Ann. Artie is then sent to a nearby town, where he is to serve as apprentice to a draper. Julia Foster's vocal double was Marti Webb, who played Ann in the original 1963 London production (and who appears on the London Cast album). Half a Sixpence tells the story of Arthur Kipps, an orphan and a draper's assistant who unexpectedly inherits a fortune. The new stage version is the musical adaptation of HG Wells's semi-autobiographical novel Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, first created by Beverley Cross and David Heneker. Songs included in the show are "Flash, Bang, Wallop" and "Half a Sixpence". Filming started 13 September 1966 in England. It was meant to take four months but went over schedule. [7]

Several years later he meets up with Ann once again, and with the coin cut into two he gives one half to Ann as a symbol of their love. Finale: "Half a Sixpence" (reprise)/"Flash, Bang, Wallop" (reprise), performed by Artie, Ann and ChorusThe joyous screen version of the Broadway and London musical hit. "If I had the money, I'd buy me a banjo!" says struggling sales clerk Arthur Kipps (Tommy Steele). Soon he'll inherit enough to buy a whole bloomin' orchestra. But can his newfound wealth buy happiness? Multi-talented Steele brings his London and New York stage smash to the screen in this big, cheerful tune-filled production based on H.G. Wells' charming novel "Kipps." Cyril Ritchard costars as a thespian who introduces Arthur to the joys of Edwardian London's music halls. And a huge cast of high-stepping, high spirited singers and dancers have the time of their lives. Enjoy because "Half A Sixpence" gets you a million dollars' worth of fun. Half a Sixpence is a 1967 British musical film directed by George Sidney and choreographed by Gillian Lynne. The screenplay by Beverley Cross is adapted from his book for the 1963 stage musical of the same name, which was based on Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, a 1905 novel by H. G. Wells. The music and lyrics are by David Heneker. John Cleese of Monty Python fame had a small role. While performing in the musical, Cleese met future Python member Terry Gilliam as well as American actress Connie Booth, whom he married on 20 February 1968. Lady Botting's Boating Regatta Cup Racing Song" (by David Heneker and Irwin Kostal), performed by Artie and Chorus

Fun as the musical is, it already shows its age: conspicuously, there is no diversity in the casting. But Kipps confirms Wells’s point that gusto and goodness can overcome the whaleboned snobbery of the class system and the show boasts an invaluable asset in Charlie Stemp, who went on to play the chimney sweep in the stage version of Mary Poppins. Tommy Steele was likable in Half a Sixpence, but there is something a touch calculated about his charm. Stemp radiates kindly innocence and reminds us that Wells subtitled his quietly subversive novel “the story of a simple soul”. Artie grows up into a young man. Work at the draper's store is difficult. He becomes friends with Harry Chitterlow, an actor-playwright, who discovers that Artie is heir to a fortune left him by his grandfather. Artie becomes wealthy as a result of the inheritance, and invests in one of Chitterlow's shows. He breaks up with Ann, who has become a maid, and becomes engaged to the wealthy upper class Helen Walsingham. Kipps gets Helen's brother Hubert to invest his money. The movie was the 13th most popular at the UK box office in 1969. [20] Sidney says the film was "a real smash" in England but "did less than nothing" in the US "because it was an English picture. The film didn't have anyone in it that anyone in this country knew. Unfortunately Tommy Steele had just made two very bad pictures in this country. We followed those and had nothing to build on with him." Sidney also felt the film's financial prospects were hurt by the popularity of Beatlemania. "That brought in a whole new sound," he said. "Maybe if we had been two or three years earlier with the picture, it might have been more successful with American audiences." [9] Awards and nominations [ edit ] Two artfully juxtaposed numbers demonstrate how money can be used for ill or good. In one, Ann’s criminal brother tempts Kipps with capital gains. In another, the raffishly thespian Chitterlow hymns “the joy of the theatre” and asks Artie to invest in his new play. In June 1966, George Sidney signed to direct. [3] Steele signed a three picture deal with Paramount. [4]

Secondary Menu

A Proper Gentleman" (Reprise) – Arthur Kipps, Mrs. Walsingham, Helen Walsingham, Mrs. Botting, Young Walsingham and Party Guests