January

Café Colette began life on radio, first broadcast by the BBC in 1933; stage success at the London Palladium with George Robey followed in 1934. For the film, theatrical polymath Eric Maschwitz turned to his radio original, basically a programme of foreign dance music played by the orchestra of Walford Hyden and His Café Colette Orchestra, transmitted as if from a Parisian café. Compered by Dino Galvani, the programme lulled radio listeners into believing it was indeed coming direct from a French café. Hyden was qualified for the job; his other manifestations included Walford Hyden and His Ciganskies and, seen in a Pathé short, Walford Hyden and His Magyar Orchestra.

The short-lived Garrick Film Company’s version, produced by W. Devenport Hackney and directed at Wembley Studios by Paul L. Stein, had a screenplay by Maschwitz, Val Valentine and Katherine Strueby, based on an idea by Val Gielgud. Vanda Muroff (the Norwegian Greta Nissen in her last film role) is an aristocratic Russian spy. Romantic lothario Ryan (Paul Cavanagh) resists her charm, but he too is a spy. The plot developed along conventional lines well known to Maschwitz. The Parisian atmosphere, perhaps easier to get away with on radio, was not wholly convincing, but the music of George Posford (a regular collaborator with Maschwitz) helped to lighten the load. Among others involved were Sally Gray, Donald Calthrop, dancers Cleo Nordi and Ronnie Boyer, the always watchable Olive Sloane, Charles Carson, and, in their only film, the Tzigansky Choir.