Keep Fit (1937)
5KKeep Fit: Directed by Anthony Kimmins. With George Formby, Kay Walsh, Guy Middleton, Gus McNaughton. A weak, cowardly barber (George Formby)gets fit to win over a beautiful woman. However, she prefers his muscle-bound rival until George challenges him to a boxing match.
“Keep Fit was produced at a time when Britain had a health problem. Unlike the obesity scares of today poor diet through poverty even malnutrition and rickets were commonplace amongst the working class. The government ran various campaigns throughout the u0026#39;30u0026#39;s to promote good health and of course applauded the many Fitness Leagues in existence for a lot of people all a bit futile if a loaf of bread was too expensive to buy. When conscription into the armed forces was re-introduced in peacetime 5 months before World War 2 it was partly with an eye to fattening as well as fitting up cannon fodder, as the government had been advised to by their mandarins as early as 1936.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHere we have weedy George wanting to impress the seemingly unattainable Kay Walsh and win her from the attention of the stout Guy Middleton. Two rival newspapers run a publicity campaign based on keeping fit, itu0026#39;s a perfect opportunity to prove whou0026#39;s the fitter: the gormless wimp or the powerful gymnast (or the alluring girlfriend for that matter)! A nice studio-bound atmosphere pervades for the most part, and weu0026#39;re back in the company of some familiar Formby faces and familiar plot. Songs were: Biceps, Muscle And Brawn (in the locker room, a favourite of mine), I Donu0026#39;t Like (by the Thames at Hurley with Walsh), Keep Fit (training in the boxing ring with Hal Gordon). Seven years later and Edmund Breon was well ensconced in Hollywood I wonder if he ever thought of these days with Formby when he was playing next to Edward G. Robinson or Basil Rathbone? Middletonu0026#39;s moustache never looked more bristlier than in here. Favourite bits: giving Breon a close shave; the party for the department store employees, where the shifty Middleton shows his true colours; the nonsensical boxing match showing the power of love.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s neither his puniest film nor his best by a long way, but still a pleasant ride over familiar ground.”
