Flying Fifty-Five (1939) User Reviews

"What do they want oats for? Why can't they eat grass?"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 2 November 2019]

Despite the usual blackmail and violent death, this is a remarkably cheerful Edgar Wallace adaptation - brightly lit, much of it shot on location in the sunshine and played for laughs - rather than more ghoulish, gothic outings like 'The Terror' and 'The Case of the Frightened Lady' that immediately preceded and followed it.

The generally genial, light-hearted tone of the piece is further enhanced by a brief appearance - easily spotted and with a couple of lines - by a relatively young Terry-Thomas looking (and sounding) exactly as he did twenty years later.

Workable

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 5 September 2019]

FLYING 55 is another workable Edgar Wallace adaptation, of the kind which were so popular during the 1930s. This one has unknown-to-me cast members but a different kind of plot to the usual robberies and murders, as a debtor son finds himself estranged from his own father and forced to work as a groom to make ends meet. The supporting cast features some well-judged turns from drunkard Marius Goring and the immensely likeable Ronald Shiner. The brief running time means that this has a snappy pace and plenty of incident, making it an effortless watch.

Clichéd Horseracing drama

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 9 June 2012]

Even when this film was made for RKO as a quota film in 1939 the elements of the story were very familiar.De Marney plays an amateur jockey who is being blackmailed on a bounced cheque by one of his father's sworn enemies.De Marney helps out Marius Goring by paying his gambling debt of £150,a large amount in those days.he goes back to his father for more financial help but father kicks him out.De Marney lands a job as a lad in the stables of Nancy Byrne.He tames a wild horse,Flying 55 and enters him in a race.Everything depends on his winning,naturally.Father's rival wants him to lose the race and he will tear up the cheque.De Marney comes second but there is an objection and he wins and gets to marry Byrne and is reconciled with dad.So really film making by numbers.Every cliché covered.Not an original line or plot device to be found.

Flying Fifty-Five

[Prismark10 · 4/10 · 15 March 2021]

Flying Fifty-Five is a low budget and very pedestrian but light hearted thriller. It is based on an Edgar Wallace story.

Bill Urquhart has upset his wealthy father who makes sure that a cheque Bill has written bounces.

An upset Bill goes his own way and works under an assumed name at a racing stable owned by Stella Barrington. Flying Fifty-Five is the wild steeplechase horse who only responds to Bill.

Before long, the rogue who has the bounced cheque that Bill wrote, blackmails Bill. He wants Bill to throw the race where Flying Fifty-Five is running. At the time writing a dishonoured cheque was a criminal offence.

There is a side plot where a dead man is mistaken to be Bill Urquhart. All because Bill had a cigarette box bearing his name stolen.

There is some nice genteel comedy. The thrills are hard to come by. The film starts off slowly and everyone speaks in clipped tones.

Luckily Bill finds a bit of romance with Stella. Even his father who has been mistakenly told his son has died comes round.

An odd one. Not bad. Not good. Just there.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 19 January 2023]

The "vedy British" dialects of the cast and cultural references will be an obstacle in American audiences truly enjoying this film which features its leading man, Derrick De Marney, framed by his own father got bouncing a check, then forced to go into hiding to prevent himself from being arrested. He works at the stables in a horse racing stadium, encountering the attractive socialite Nancy Burne who is unaware of his identity, and the usual romantic entanglements occur. I didn't find this to have a really exciting plot, but fans of the horse racing industry might enjoy this more than I did. There are some entertaining supporting performances by some popular British character actors of the time including Marius Goring and Ronald Shiner, the typical eccentric types who get laughs simply by opening their mouth and saying something off color or bizarre. I can't really find anything good or bad to say in regards to it, basically that it just didn't grab me and that I was grateful that it wasn't very long.