Lilacs in the Spring

Everest Pictures

Company type	Film production company
Industry	Film production
Founded	1954
Founder	Herbert Wilcox
Headquarters	United Kingdom

Lilacs in the Spring is a 1954 British musical film directed and produced by Herbert Wilcox, featuring performances by Anna Neagle, Errol Flynn, and David Farrar. The movie was shot at Elstree Studios with set designs crafted by art director William C. Andrews. It utilized Trucolor technology and was distributed in the UK by Republic Pictures. This film represents the initial collaboration between Neagle and Flynn, later followed by King's Rhapsody. In the American market, it was released under the title Let's Make Up.

The screenplay is adapted from the acclaimed stage musical The Glorious Days by Harold Purcell and Robert Nesbitt, which featured Neagle in a successful run of 467 performances spanning two years. The film makes nods to Neagle’s previous successes, including Nell Gwynn (1934) and Victoria the Great (1937).

Plot

Carole Beaumont, an actress, finds herself pursued by actor-producer Charles King but remains hesitant about his intentions. During a Blitz air raid, she is rendered unconscious by a bomb blast, leading to vivid daydreams where she imagines herself as Nell Gwyn with Charles portraying King Charles.

Following medical advice to recuperate in the countryside, Carole visits Albert Gutman’s family residence near Windsor. There, she envisions herself as Queen Victoria and Albert as Prince Albert, which results in her accepting Albert’s proposal of marriage. When Charles arrives with an offer for Carole to join his troupe in Burma, she declines, expressing skepticism about actors.

Kate, a barmaid, reveals that Carole’s hesitation is rooted in her mother Lillian Grey’s past: Lillian advanced from chorus girl to leading lady alongside John Beaumont before the war separated them. Consequently, Carole was raised largely without her mother’s presence.

Production

Produced by Everest Pictures—a newly established company founded by producer-director Herbert Wilcox—the film came into being after Wilcox was unable to secure funding from Republic Pictures for two Ivor Novello musicals he had acquired. Subsequently, he turned to British Lion for support. Both Neagle and Wilcox personally guaranteed a £75,000 loan to finance the production, a financial gamble that later played a role in Wilcox’s bankruptcy when the films failed to meet commercial expectations.

Errol Flynn joined the project partly to resolve debts incurred from his abandoned The Story of William Tell production. Filming commenced at Elstree Studios near London in July 1954. Neagle commended Flynn for his professionalism and cooperative spirit throughout the shoot.

Flynn sang using his own natural voice during filming. This project also marked the screen debut of Sean Connery.

Reception

The movie did not achieve commercial success either in Britain or the United States.

Critical response

Dilys Powell of the Sunday Times characterized the film’s appeal as "innocuous and domesticated." C. A. Lejeune observed that Flynn and Neagle "subtly execute a period parody that carries a certain distinction."

A critic from the Los Angeles Times expressed that there was "little justification for its creation."

Filmink magazine described it as "a chaotic endeavor—intriguing yet disorganized."

Additional Flynn-Wilcox Projects

Producer Herbert Wilcox revealed plans to contract Errol Flynn for a series of six films over a span of two years, with reported earnings of £12,000 for three movies within a single year. Among the intended undertakings were a cinematic version of Somerset Maugham's Caesar's Wife and a motion picture centered on Napoleon’s escape from Elba, casting Flynn as an Irish mercenary; nevertheless, none of these proposals came to fruition.

External links

• Let's Make Up on TCMDB
• Film review in Variety