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Don Chicago
Don Chicago
Directed by	Maclean Rogers
Screenplay by	Austin Melford
Based on	Don Chicago by C. E. Bechhofer Roberts
Produced by	Louis H. Jackson
Starring	Jackie Hunter; Eddie Gray; Joyce Heron
Cinematography	Gerald Gibbs
Edited by	Grace Garland
Music by	Percival Mackey
Production; company	British National Films
Distributed by	Anglo-American Film Corporation (UK)
Release date	6 August 1945 (UK);
Running time	80 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Don Chicago is a 1945 British second feature ('B')^[1] crime comedy film directed by Maclean Rogers and starring Jackie Hunter, Joyce Heron and Claud Allister.^[2]^[3] The screenplay was by Austin Melford based on the 1944 novel of the same title by C. E. Bechhofer Roberts.

Plot

Don Chicago, and aspiring but timid gangster, is forced to leave the United States after crossing the wrong people, and on arrival in Britain he is treated as a dangerous criminal. He steals the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, and infiltrates the BBC to make various announcements.

Cast

Jackie Hunter as Don Chicago
Eddie Gray as Police Constable Gray
Joyce Heron as Kitty Mannering
Claud Allister as Lord Piccadilly
Amy Veness as Bowie Knife Bella
Wylie Watson as Peabody
Don Stannard as Ken Cressing
Charles Farrell as Don Dooley
Finlay Currie as Bugs Mulligan
Cyril Smith as Flash Kelly
Ellen Pollock as Lady Vanessa
Moira Lister as telephone operator
Wally Patch as sergeant
Inga Andersen

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This film has some amusing moments, but script and production as a whole lack the slickness and pace which will turn an improbable story into a first-class farce. Jackie Hunter bears the main burden of the acting in the title role and shows promise as a film comedian, but the rest of the cast are given few opportunities to provide him with effective support."^[4]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Exuberant gangster burlesque, with bright vaudeville intermissions ... The biggest laughs, and fortunately, these are very plentiful, come when Jackie Hunter and Monsewer Eddie Gray are permitted to improvise and introduce their well known radio, cabaret and music hall acts. In effect a two-man show."^[5]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Possibiities of comedy defeated by quality of the material."^[6]

References

^ Chibnall, Steve; McFarlane, Brian (2009). The British 'B' Film. London: BFI/Bloomsbury. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-8445-7319-6.
^ "Don Chicago". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
^ "BFI | Film & TV Database | DON CHICAGO (1945)". Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
^ "Don Chicago". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 12 (133): 59. 1 January 1945 – via ProQuest.
^ "Don Chicago". Kine Weekly. 339 (1985): 22. 3 May 1945 – via ProQuest.
^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 204. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.