London Screen Study Collection LONDON ON SCREEN
London Lives
Sailing Along (1938)
Dir: Sonnie Hale
Sc: Selwyn Jepson, Sonnie Hale, Lesser Samuel
Ph: Glenn MacWilliams
Art dir: Alfred Junge
Cost: Norman Hartnell
Ed: Al Barnes
Dance arr: Buddy Bradley
Mus: Clive Richardson, Louis Levy
Cast: Jessie Matthews (Kay Martin), Barry MacKay (Steve Barnes), Jack Whiting (Dicky Randall), Roland Young
(Anthony Gulliver), Noel Madson (Windy), Frank Pettingell ( Skipper Barnes), Alastair Sim (Sylvester), Athene
Seyler (Victoria Gulliver), Margaret Vyner (Stephanie), William Dewhurst (Winton)
Prod: Michael Balcon. Gaumont British. 97 mins
Jessie Matthews (1907–1981) made her name in the theatre before becoming Britain’s favourite 1930's musical
film star. Born one of ten children in London in 1907, she made her stage debut at 10 in the children’s play
'Bluebell in Fairyland'. At 16, she was in the chorus of Charlot’s revue in London and New York. She idolised the
show’s star, Gertrude Lawrence and in her hotel bedroom would practise her hit number, Parisian Pierrot,
remembering every movement and gesture. When Charlot asked who was Lawrence’s second understudy,
Jessie piped up ‘Me’. Impressed, Charlot made her the first understudy. In theatrical tradition more usual in
fiction than real life, the night came when the star was off and Jessie was on. She never looked back.
In 1928 Jessie was contracted to C B Cochran for the Noël Coward revue This Year of Grace, starring
opposite the popular Sonnie Hale. They fell in love. Unfortunately Hale was already married to much-loved
musical star Evelyn Laye, and despite her own popularity, this temporarily alienated Matthews from the public.
She and Hale later married, although the marriage did not last. In 1930 Matthews had one of her greatest
successes in Rodgers and Hart’s Ever Green in which she danced and sang ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’ around a
stage set with an upended chandelier. She played a young girl who pretends to be a 60-year old woman
miraculously kept young by cosmetics.
For most of the 1930s, Matthews was Britain’s most popular film star, kept busy making one box-office smash
musical after another, including First a Girl (later remade as Victor Victoria starring Julie Andrews), Evergreen
and The Good Companions opposite John Gielgud. [Sailing Along was the last of the six 30s musicals she
made]. However the pressures were too great and Jessie began to suffer from depression and attempted
suicide. She later remarried and went to live in Australia. When she returned to England, the more mature Jessie
found it difficult to restart her career, but in the 1960s she became a household name again as the eponymous
heroine of the hugely popular radio soap 'Mrs Dale’s Diary'. - V&A Museum note
Still to come in London Lives:
22 Oct Daybreak (Bennett, 1948) Ann Todd, Eric Portman
29 Oct Spring in Park Lane (1948, Wilcox) Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding
5 Nov Never Let Go (Guillermin, 1960) Richard Todd, Peter Sellers
12 Nov What a Crazy World (Carreras, 1963) Joe Brown, Susan Maugham
19 Nov Nothing But the Best (Donner, 1964) Alan Bates, Millicent Martin
26 Nov Poor Cow (Loach, 1967) Carol White, Terence Stamp
3 Dec 10 Rillington Place (Fleischer, 1971) Richard Attenborough
12 Dec Dreams of a Life (Morley, 2011) Zawe Ashton, Alix Luka-Cain
The London Screen Study Collection exists to promote interest and research in London’s screen history, Visit our
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