I See Ice (1938, UK)

George Formby was a popular British entertainer with a cheerful temperament; he played the ukulele and was a very big star in the UK in his day. He made a number of films in which he played himself, more or less; in all of them he was the little man struggling to survive, and always downtrodden by authority figures.

In this film he is a photographer's assistant; travelling by train to an important professional job, he gets in the wrong train and realising the error, he pulls the emergency communication cord. The railway authorities are evidently prepared to go to great lengths to track him down, and on arrival at London Euston, they are on the lookout for him. A woman ice skater has befriended him and lent him a coat and hat, and he bluffs his way through the ticket exit barrier posing as a woman.

But the police are everywhere and he assumes they are all on the lookout for him; he dodges into the Ladies' Waiting Room, but they have seen him go in, and a woman police officer is sent in after him. There is another woman present, but (rather startlingly) the policewoman says, "From information I have received, it is my duty to ask you two ladies to satisfy me as to your sex. I'm sorry but I shall have to take down your particulars!"

(He runs for it.)

The title reflects the Ice Hockey theme of the climax of the film; ice hockey was a sudden and transient craze in the UK at this time.

HF October 2006

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