Half a Sixpence

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Half a Sixpence ★★ 1967

Former musician Sidney, who earlier directed “Showboat” and “Kiss Me Kate,” shows a bit less verve in this production. Based on H.G. Wells' 1905 novel, “Kipps,” it sports much of the original cast from its Broadway incarnation. Edwardian orphan Steele, a cloth-dealer-in-training, comes into a large sum of money and proceeds to lose it with great dispatch. Somewhere along the way he loses his girlfriend, too, but she takes him back because musicals end happily. ♫Half a Sixpence; Flash, Bang, Wallop!; All In The Cause Of Economy; I'm Not Talking To You; Money To Burn; The Race Is On; I Don't Believe A Word Of It; A Proper Gentleman; She's Too Far Above Me. 148m/B VHS, DVD . Tommy Steele, Julia Foster, Penelope Horner, Cyril Ritchard, Grover Dale; D: George Sidney; W: Beverley Cross; C: Geoffrey Unsworth.