George Formby made No Limit at Ealing Studios in 1935.It is about George with a bike that he has created wanting to ride in the TT races,trying to win the girl and fend off the villain.This film was also made at Ealing in 1935,by an independent company.A very similar story only based at Brooklands.So i wonder who was copying who?Formby's film is still entertaining whereas this film deserves its obscurity notwithstanding the fact that it was co written by John Huston.The film was clearly designed as a quota quicky.despite being only 63minutes long it achieves the difficult feat of feeling like 2 hours long.The villainous racing driver is played by Miles Mander who would soon go off to Hollywood.Lucky him if it meant avoiding appearing in further films as poor as this.
3 Reviews
Mainly of curiosity value!
JohnHowardReid23 June 2010
Mainly of curiosity value, though the script is so ordinary it will disappoint John Huston's admirers no end.
Fans of Robert Douglas will be none too happy either. They will hardly recognize their hero as the male lead. And worst still, there is a whole lot of boob-catering low comedy, with the male lead's obligatory side-kick.
Still, good old Edward L. Cahn's direction has one thing in its favor — the racing sequences are filmed on the spot with no process screens being used (though a process screen is used elsewhere in the film to provide a background for a romantic car-ride).
Why Eddie Cahn was specially imported for this "B"-feature is anybody's guess. He certainly doesn't do much better than the local "B" talent — a couple of tracking shots and that's about it.
As for the acting, it's both broad and clumsily over-emphatic. In fact, production values generally are inclined to be tatty, photography and art direction included.
Fans of Robert Douglas will be none too happy either. They will hardly recognize their hero as the male lead. And worst still, there is a whole lot of boob-catering low comedy, with the male lead's obligatory side-kick.
Still, good old Edward L. Cahn's direction has one thing in its favor — the racing sequences are filmed on the spot with no process screens being used (though a process screen is used elsewhere in the film to provide a background for a romantic car-ride).
Why Eddie Cahn was specially imported for this "B"-feature is anybody's guess. He certainly doesn't do much better than the local "B" talent — a couple of tracking shots and that's about it.
As for the acting, it's both broad and clumsily over-emphatic. In fact, production values generally are inclined to be tatty, photography and art direction included.
Entertaining Quota Quickie
julianbonser14 February 2022
This movie was included in the 14 volume Ealing Studios Rarities set. As with most 1930's productions one has to endure the silly humour that prevailed in even the most serious dramas. However, I enjoyed the wealth of Brooklands race day footage as it added realism and chorused with my memories of this track. I attended Brooklands Technical College in the mid 1960's, the campus and race track separated by the Southern Railways line from Waterloo. We students would often wander onto the track at lunch time and try to walk up the banked section, now slippery with moss and other vegetation. And we'd climb onto the Members' Bridge which was rusty and unsafe. Back then, the idea of resurrecting the racecourse was mooted, but flooding of the adjacent River Wey in 1967 badly damaged the track. I note that the fictitious fatal accident featured in the film was in fact Movietone footage of Clive Dunfee in his eight litre Bentley in September 1932, cart-wheeling having strayed over the banking rim at around 130 mph.. I was surprised that film of such a horrendous fatal accident should be used to give impact to the movie. All that aside, I enjoyed the character interplays and a reasonably realistic plot. And, of course a feelgood ending with love conquering all. To appreciate films of this vintage you have to get into the mindset of 1930's cinematography and not harp on how dated it now seems.
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