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SIM
"Once sincerity rears its ugly head, lifemanship is powerless."
Over the years Britain has produced a not inconsiderable number of top flight film stars; Claude `failed and sent to America' Raines, Margaret `Wicked Lady' Lockwood, Sir Michael Rednose, Margaret Rutherford, Seen `Sean Connery' Canary, David `Candleshoe' Niven, Sir Rich Ralphardson, Sir Lord Richard of Attenborough, Peter Sellers and Oosti Boosti Ustinov amongst many others. Some are famous for their acting, some for their looks, some for just being famous but none of those names listed above or indeed listed anywhere else compare to the stature, ability, range or just cheer class of our subject this week. Of course, the fact that Alastair Sim was all of the above and more is easily demonstrated by the simple fact that he is the most represented face on the Top 100 Films with no fewer than four star vehicles of his own listed. But in any case a quick glance at his CV testifies to an unparalleled career in British films.
1935 seems to have been the year that Sim made his first impact upon the cinema with the likes of THE RIVERSIDE MURDER and A FIRE HAS BEEN ARRANGED but we're afraid we're not terribly aware of these early efforts. The earliest film of his that we do know of is THE BIG NOISE from 1936 in which Sim gets to sing a a jolly comic song about being a `great big business man' who keeps a pet goat. Looking alarmingly young (although dark haired there's not a lot of it about) he radiates star quality from the off. 1937 brought some more early credits his way with such numbers as war story A ROMANCE IN FLANDERS and Edgar Wallace tomfoolery THE SQUEAKER with Robert `ar, Jim lad' Newton but in 1938 comes the desperately sought after (yet still never achieved) ALF'S BUTTON AFLOAT the by-word for longing in the Creamguide (films) offices. Sim plays the genie of the lamp who eventually becomes the genie of Alf's Button in a brilliant Crazy Gang romp which was the best of their films, not a little of which had to do with the involvement of our Alastair.
The war years were a little lean for Sim with only a few films such as early J B Priestley adaptation LET THE PEOPLE SING alongside the great Fred Emney and spy thriller COTTAGE TO LET with John Mills and Sim's treasured (not least by us) protégé George Cole but it was the post-war period that produced the films that sealed the man's place in the record books. The first of these was the splendid GREEN FOR DANGER with Sim playing the police Inspector investigating a series of murders in a hospital during wartime alongside Trevor Howard and Moore Marriott. Then came what was the first of the films that came to be known as Ealing comedies, HUE AND CRY a story of a children's paper being used to communicate information to criminals and has a brilliant ending where the baddies are rounded up at the docklands of East London by hordes of boys. Thrilling stuff. CAPTAIN BOYCOTT was more standard fare but LONDON BELONGS TO ME was a great chance for Sim to impart that slightly eerie atmosphere he could project so easily as he starred alongside Hugh Griffiths and Sir Lord Richard of Attenborough. By now he had really hit his stride and the films he was to make over the next few years provide an unequalled run of quality; THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF YOUR LIFE with Margaret `Ahoy!' Rutherford, LAUGHTER IN PARADISE with George Cole, LADY GODIVA RIDES AGAIN with Diana Dors and George Cole and the definitive A Christmas Carol adaptation SCROOGE with Patrick Macnee, Jack Warner and, erm, George Cole. This would be enough to have any other film star retire into satisfied dotage, but incredibly there was still more to come and another run of genius kicked off shortly after with THE BELLES OF ST TRINIAN'S, AN INSPECTOR CALLS and twee-but-we-love-it GEORDIE. Having hit his stride and reached his prime Sim was also, lest we forget, heavily engaged in the groundbreaking work he was doing in theatre yet he still found time in the next few years for LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTRE, SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS and THE MILLIONAIRESS.
Normally by this point we would have had to embark on a series of explanations and descriptions of the films of the subject at hand but it is further testament to the ubiquity of Sim's lasting masterpieces that it really isn't necessary in his case. The performances he gave were beyond compare in their genre and that is not to say that he was confined to any one genre by any means. As Millicent Fritton the headmistress of St Trinian's he was genuinely hilarious yet as the eponymous Inspector in the film adaptation of J B Preistley's famous play he was genuinely forbidding, foreboding and suitably accusatory. In Geordie or London Belongs To Me he could be eccentric, in Laughter in Paradise he could be pathetic yet he managed to never alienate his public by playing every type of character and thereby defeating those who contend that the greatest stars are not character actors but those who are clearly recognisable as themselves in whatever part they play. Yet Alastair Sim was both. He was the most popular film star in Britain for many years but also took to parts that conceded nothing either to his vanity or his public's expectations (other than that of quality).
Doubtless Alastair Sim never really made much of an impression in Hollywood and although that matters not one tittle to us that remains the sort of anodyne accusation of failure that those who measure success with the short sticks of fashion would make. But as Eric Idle said in reference to Peter Cook on his failure to crack Hollywood, that isn't a testament to failure, that's a testament to living. So Creamguide (Films) salutes the person and career of Britain's Greatest Ever Film Star, Alastair Sim.
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