GEORGE FORMBY'S ENSA PARTY, CEYLON 1945 (3/1945)

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: ABY 89).

Synopsis

Members of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) including George Formby, the British music hall artist, arrive to entertain servicemen at RAF Ratmalana in Columbo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

ENSA members step down from an RAF Douglas Dakota Mk III FL643. They wear plain service dress with ENSA shoulder flashes. The first off the plane is Formby's unnamed pianist. George Formby and his wife Beryl disemplane carrying ukuleles. Formby, grinning broadly, takes a small cardboard carton from his haversack and shows it to the camera. (Text on the carton illegible). A number of instrument cases lying on the ground; George and Beryl pick one out. George and other members of the ENSA party with a group of men in front of a Dakota. He plays a short piece on his ukulele. The men around him laugh and Beryl and another ENSA man dip their shoulders in time to the music. The diminutive British pantomime and comedy actor 'Wee' Georgie Wood, wearing a pith helmet much too large for him, is helped down from the aircraft. His 'stage mother' Dolly Harmer follows behind. Georgie Wood is greeted. Close-up of Georgie Wood.

Notes

For other ABY films relating to ENSA, see below.

 

Titles

  • GEORGE FORMBY'S ENSA PARTY, CEYLON 1945 (3/1945) (Allocated)
Series Title:
ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR
 

Technical Data

Year:
1945
Running Time:
2 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
35mm
Colour:
B&W
Sound:
Silent
Footage:
172 ft
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB
Sponsor
Air Ministry Directorate of Public Relations
cameraman
Hughes, H R (Flight Sergeant)
Production company
Royal Air Force Film Production Unit
 

Countries

 

Production Organisations