A Run for Your Money (1949) User Reviews

The Whole Town's Talking About The Jones Boys

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 15 November 2011]

A Run For Your Money concerns a trip to London after coal mining brothers win a prize from a newspaper. Donald Houston and Meredith Edwards play the brothers from some long unpronounceable Welsh village and Alec Guinness plays the gardening columnist who is assigned to cover their visit. Guinness who resents being taken away from his beloved flowers manages to botch the assignment as the brothers get separated and never quite get to the rugby match that they wanted to see.

Edwards meets up with an old pal from Wales in the person of Hugh Griffith who gets money from Edwards to get his beloved harp out of a pawnbroker's shop. The funniest gag in this Ealing comedy is Griffith carrying that harp around all over Londong as they search for Houston, while all the time stopping at every pub on the way.

Houston gets himself involved with a known con woman played by Moira Lister and Guinness is frantic to see she doesn't steal the prize money that the newspaper gave the brothers Jones. Houston is one naive country kid, a bit of a spin off from the character he played opposite Jean Simmons in the first Blue Lagoon movie. A certain providence watches over him.

This film would mark the last time Alec Guinness was a supporting player at Ealing. Henceforth he would be starring in these films. Honorable mention should also go to Hugh Griffith one of my favorite British players. Griffith may well have not been acting as his character is called to be soused the entire film and his appetite for the grape was legendary.

A Run For Your Money still holds up well after over 60 years and is still a very funny film. You will be talking about those Jones boys from Wales.

Take the money and run

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 10 January 2019]

Anything from Ealing Studios promises a lot from the get go. Their films tend to be funny (hilarious at their best), charming and well made with great actors with a gift for comic timing. Am especially fond of 'The Ladykillers', 'The Man in the White Suit', 'The Lavender Hill Mob' and my favourite 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'. So expected quite a lot from 'A Run for Your Money'.

Part of me couldn't help feeling a little disappointed though watching 'A Run for Your Money', perhaps from somewhat understandably expecting too much (seriously any Ealing Studios film featuring or starring Alec Guinness, evidenced by his tour-De-force acting in 'Kind Hearts and Coronets', sounds like a recipe for greatness). Despite how that sounds, 'A Run for Your Money' was actually still enjoyable with reservations, definitely not a film to avoid. It's just hard not to compare it against Ealing's other films because their best films are so wonderful and considered classics for good reason.

Did find that the Donald Houston/Moira Lister subplot was not always very interesting, tending to test my patience and be on the slow and saccharine side. Lister came over as somewhat anaemic so that further brought it down.

Some of the more farcical humour came over as a little over-played and repetitive, parts coming over as on the cheap side.

However, 'A Run for Your Money' is well made with handsome sets and photography particularly. It's whimiscally and lushly scored and Charles Frend keeps much of the film moving along nicely. The script has a nice playful wit and there is immense charm throughout, being half-Welsh it was hard not to feel nostalgic. Despite not caring for the Houston and Lister subplot, the Meredith Edwards and Hugh Griffith one was more interesting and it was amusing generally.

Lister aside, the performances are fine, comic timing not flagging and there is likeability. Guinness was never less than reliable and he was fun to watch even though he was deserving of more to do.

In summary, nice though considering it was an Ealing Studios film part of me expected more. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Well made but I had a hard time really caring about the film or the characters in it.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 26 August 2009]

This is one of the harder reviews I've ever done. In the past, I have loved the Ealing Studios films I have seen. I also love the time I have spent in Wales--it's a charming and wonderful land. So I really expected to love A RUN FOR YOUR MONEY. Oddly, however, I liked it only mildly, though I wasn't totally sure why. So, instead of writing my review right away like I usually do, I decided to think about it for a while...mull it over in my head.

Now that some time has passed, I think the biggest reason I didn't love the film was that my expectations are just too high. Having seen films like PASSPORT TO PIMLICO and THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (among many others), I expected the same magic. This really isn't 100% fair--as the Ealing people can't be expected to reprise the same level of success in every film. Another reason, and this one I think they could help, was that in many ways you never really get to know the characters that well. Too often, they are running about or having adventures and I felt that I wanted more. Finally, the whole idea of a country person going to the big city and having problems with the fast-paced city dwellers has been done many times before and the idea wasn't 100% original.

Still, there is a lot to like. Just from a historical standpoint, this is a glimpse at Welsh life that simply doesn't exist any more, now that their economy is no longer based on coal and slate mining. Also, while not necessarily a great film, it is very pleasant and worth watching. So, provided you don't set your expectations too high, then it's a very good film.

Funny, Skillfully Made Comedy

[bensonj · 7 December 2004]

Two brothers, country-boy Welsh miners, come to London for a day to collect a prize won and to see a football match. They are separated when they arrive and spend the rest of the film trying to find each other. One, a handsome, naive lad (of the sort Bill Travers played in WEE GEORDIE) is alternately taken in tow by Alec Guinness, an effeminate garden-column writer, and by Moira Lister, a larcenous blonde. The other meets up with old-friend, street-singer Hugh Griffith, and they get wildly drunk. The pacing is superb, and the style is realistic. There is a large variety of amusing characters, the most memorable of which is Joyce Grenfell in a fancy dress shop. It's all extremely cleverly done, and filled with well-timed laughs. You don't see the laughs coming; in that sense they're never predictable. Nor are they easy, lazy laughs; they're very deftly worked out. Yet it doesn't go beyond that consummate skill. Halliwell, as usual, puts it very well; "with characterizations as excellent as they are expected." Somehow, the film isn't quite as pleasing as should be. This is largely because of the naive lad's relationship to the con-girl; one has to wonder about the worth of a man who'd completely forget his fiancé in a day, and Lister's weak performance doesn't give the conceit any help. Also, the level of farce is occasionally pushed beyond its limits. It's OK that the brothers keep missing each other like people slipping in and out of doors in a stage farce, but for Griffith and the brother he's with to literally pop in and out of the doors of the underground train, and stretch the routine to the limit, seems a bit much. But one feels a bit bad complaining about the weaknesses of the film, because it is very entertaining, and a skillfully made comedy.

Love in the shadow of the tower of London.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 19 December 2023]

An intelligent Ealing comedy underplays rising star Alec Guennis in favor of Donald Houston and Meredith Edwards as two Welch men who travel to London after winning a contest for tickets to a rugby match and find all sorts of crazy adventures. Alec Guennis is the journalist sent to interview them, but instead, they end up hanging out wiry wacky harpist Hugh Griffith while handsome Huston is stalked by Moira Lister, a beautiful bur cunning con-artist. Of course his simple charms sooths the savage city slicker, but Huston already has a girl back home, even though Shearer is quite the temptation.

I enjoyed this more for the location photography which includes travel to London from Wales through some gorgeous landscapes with stunning mountain tunnels and later on a ride on the London underground including a trek down the escalator where Huston and Edwards, separated from each other, try in wacky ways to get to the other side, and later on, Griffith jumping on and off the train with his harp, delaying the closing of the doors. The delightful Joyce Grenfell plays a fashion shop operator where her witty style of speech overshadows the fashions. A slice of life light comedy with many funny moments, and a nice journey to the lifestyles and mixtures of cultures from over half a century ago.

A Run for Your Money review

[JoeytheBrit · 6/10 · 15 May 2020]

Largely forgotten compared to Ealing's other comedies from 1949 (passport to Pimlico, Whisky Galore, and Kind Hearts and Coronets), A Run for Your Money is still an entertaining picture thanks to enthusiastic performances from Donald Houston, Meredith Edwards and Hugh Griffith. Alec Guinness is more subdued, but still contributes some comic moments.

A Well Made British Comedy

[crossbow0106 · 9/10 · 14 December 2008]

This story is about two Welsh brothers who are miners from an unpronounceable place in Wales who win a contest to go to London to see a rugby match. Part of the winnings are 200 pounds, a considerable sum in those days. The pair arrive, completely miss the otherwise disinterested gardening columnist asked to give them the prize (a great Alec Guiness) and go to the city. They meet up with Jo (the beautiful Moira Lister) and it turns out she is a scam artist and wants the money, so she becomes closer to the naive Dai. The brothers end up losing each other, with Twm meeting up with an old friend from their town. Hee helps him get back his pawned harp. The film goes from there, the brothers trying to find each other, Jo trying to get the 200 pounds and the columnist trying to endure this, being clearly out of his element. This is a very good film, comic, dramatic and even touching. The last half hour is excellent as you see how the story unfolds. If you like British film, especially classic British film, I highly recommend this.

Taffs in town

[Lejink · 5/10 · 10 January 2019]

A lesser-known, lightweight Ealing Comedy which follows the exploits of two Welsh mining brothers Donald Houston and Meredith Edwards who win a newspaper lottery prize of a trip to London, tickets for the big England v Wales rugby international at Twickenham and £100 prize money each. Sent out by the paper to chaperone them on their big day and write up their story is their reluctant, horticultural columnist Alec Guinness but almost immediately they arrive in the big city, the siblings are separated and fall into a separate series of misadventures before they have to make a madcap race for the return train home with a motley entourage in their wake, who've all played a part in their story.

A tale of innocents abroad, the film one suspects is mildly patronising of the Welsh as rather wide-eyed, boozy, over-trusting simpletons who sing their way through life's ups and downs. Houston's Dai and his solo adventure is more interesting than his brother's as he falls under the influence of what Guinness's character neatly calls a pro-con, pretty professional confidence trickster Moira Lister, out to separate Houston both from his money and his girl back in the valleys. I however found other brother Tom's escapade, where he picks up his old hometown harpist accompanist begging on the streets of London, rather tiresome.

The film has some funny moments like when a tannoy announcement is made for a Mr Jones from Wales at Paddington Station when the announcer can't pronounce their Welsh town name to a train full of Welshmen arriving for the match, with predictably chaotic results and a young Joyce Grenfell's turn as a fawning dress shop salesperson but the film suffers from too much slapstick and sentimentality. Houston and Edwards hardly seem like brothers and Hugh Griffiths as the hanger-on harp player soon irritates but Guinness already shows the skills that would make him a mainstay of the studio in years to come.

Lacking the sharp satire and social commentary of other Ealing Comedies, nonetheless I can see how this unassuming film might have cheered the average post-War cinema-goer. Me today, a bit less so.

477th Review: Welsh choirs, post-war optimism, and Alec Guinness...joy!

[intelearts · 9/10 · 10 January 2012]

This is a wonderful early post-war example of what would become staple 1950s comedies - one of the first from Ealing Studios - it has an innocence and freshness, as well as genuine laughs and charm, that hold up well nearly 70 years later.

Two Welsh miners win the Daily Echo's prize for the most productive miners in Britain and head up to London to collect the enormous sum of £200 - as innocents in London they get separated and the one meets a gorgeous girl on the make, and the other a broken-down Welsh harpist. They are all chased by a bemused Alec Guinness as the gardening correspondent out of his métier.

All in all this foreshadows the great comedies of the 1950 - but it is a very lovely example of the genre - full of joy, energy, even some farce, and lots of very beautiful music - this is one to enjoy with a nice cup of tea and a roaring fire!

Slight Ealing Comedy.

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 5 November 2007]

Donald Houston and Meredith Edwards are two Welsh miners who win a trip to London and two-hundred pounds. They are to be met at Paddington Station by a reporter (Alec Guiness) who will be their guide. They miss Guiness, then they lose each other in the streets. Houston picks up a young woman with designs on the prize money. Edwards runs into an old friend, Hugh Griffith, now a drunken rapscallion reduced to singing Welsh ballads and begging on corners, yearning for the harp he had to pawn two years earlier. Everyone runs around trying to catch the others, getting swept up in events along the way.

That's about it. The film tries to be more charming that humorous but its charm, like its comedy, is spare. It has a lot of good-natured energy but not too much else. When Griffith accidentally smashes his harp through a shop window, he shouts angrily, "If your rotten window has hurt my harp, you'll pay for it!" It doesn't get much funnier than that.

There's nothing wrong with the performances, the direction, or any other aspect of the production -- and there are one or two nice Welsh songs -- but whimsy is a poor substitute for plot. The Ealing comedies were best when they pitted canny rustics against bureaucratic ritualists. You could cheer for the peasants. Here, you cheer for everyone and there's no tension, no spring, behind the plot. Will they make the train home on time? It's such a small matter.

"How much I prefer vegetables to human beings "

[ackstasis · 8/10 · 8 October 2007]

There's plenty to love about the Ealing Studios comedies of the late 1940s and early 1950s. There's a certain laid-back attitude towards all the stories, rarely falling back upon melodrama and maintaining a solid feeling of everyday realism – the humour is much more akin to the Australian style of comedy rather than the American, and that certainly appeals to me. Charles Frend's 'A Run for Your Money' is an undiscovered gem – a term I suspect I'll be using to describe a lot of the Ealing Studio's films – from 1949. The simple story concerns Tom and David Jones, two mining brothers from the quaint Welsh town of Hafoduwchbenceubwllymarchogcoch, who win a newspaper award, and so travel to London for the first time to claim their $200 prize. Once there, the two enthusiastic young men waste no time in getting separated, and their eventful day consists of numerous coincidences, near-misses, the reacquisition of a harp, a rugby match, the boss' bowler hat, and a cunning female con-artist who tries to relieve David of his money.

This is how I like comedy the best: simple, fun and effective. The two Welsh brothers (Meredith Edwards and Donald Houston playing Tom and David, respectively) are a pair of likable larrikins, though David (called by his nickname, "Dai Number 9") is naive to the point of gullibility, and Tom ("Twm") finds it difficult to say no to a drink at any time of the day. Alec Guinness has a brilliant supporting role as Whimple, the gardening-columnist who is instructed by his newspaper editor (Clive Morton) to escort the men about London. Interestingly, he is a sort of Clouseau-esquire figure, filled with a bloated sense of self-importance that is punctuated by, above all else, his terrible luck. Fittingly, and to our great amusement, the story eventually winds up with Whimple receiving the raw end of the deal, despite his best intentions. Moira Lister is adequate as Jo, the sweet-talking Londoner who tries to scam the credulous David out of the $200 prize money.

I also noticed some solid comparisons between 'A Run for Your Money' and director Frank Capra, and the sub-plot of the female con-artist finding the heart to redeem herself was reminiscent of Jean Arthur in 'Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936).' Additionally, Capra always had a talent for celebrating of the "common man," a notable example being the singing on the night bus in 'In Happened One Night (1934).' This film follows a similar sort of path: Tom and David Jones certainly represent this noble "every-man" - they are first sighted hundreds of metres underground, as cheery, hard-working labourers in the mine, with sweaty hands and blackened faces. Director Charles Frend also uses a merry song to emphasise the magnificence of the small-town folk of Wales. On the train to and from London, the hundreds of good-natured Welshmen join each other in a jubilant chant, a symbol of their togetherness as a people. Conversely, the uptight folk of the big city prohibit music in their pubs, and, on one of the London trains, a simple request for directions leads to a heated dispute over the most efficient route to Twickenham.

A Run for your Money

[henry8-3 · 5/10 · 15 November 2018]

2 welsh miner brothers win £200 and a trip to London. There they accidentally separate with one falling for a confidence trixter, the other getting stuck with a drunken Hugh Griffiths and his harp - fun unsues. A youngish Alec Guiness is the reporter covering their story.

Amiable Ealing comedy with some occasional witty asides - Houston the miner admiring the headroom on the underground - but it lacks the sharpness of the batch of other Ealing comedies around at that time eg Passport to Pimlico, showing at the cinema they visit.

The leads are fine though with Houston just 20 years away from getting his teeth kicked in by Richard Burton atop a cable car

Pleasant enough diversion

Wonderful Welsh-English comedy with several early careers

[SimonJack · 8/10 · 28 February 2019]

"Run for Your Money" is a 1949 comedy that's just about that - two Welsh brothers, with some other interested parties, running all around London in a single day to collect a cash prize. This isn't a comedy of great witty lines and dialog that was typical of Hollywood in its golden age. Rather, it's of the British ilk of the same period with funny situations, and warm-hearted humor.

The film has a fine cast of actors of its day from around the United Kingdom. Donald Houston and Meredith Edwards are the brothers, Dai (David) and Twm (Tom). They work in the coal mines and hail from the fictional town of Hafoduwchbenceubwllymarchogcoch, Wales. Listening to the town pronounced in the opening, one comes up with a phonetic spelling for pronunciation close to this - Hah¬¬o Duke Ben Cray Buff Mare Hog Co.

The brothers have won a £200 prize from the Echo newspaper and are sent on their way to collect by the mine boss, company office and fellow miners. Clive Morton plays the paper editor who assigns his garden columnist, Whimple, to the story. Alec Guinness plays Whimple. He's to meet their train and escort the boys around London, show them a good time, and then deliver them at the paper office to accept their cash prize.

Several other people have fine parts. One is another Welshman, Hugh Griffith who plays Huw. He's a one-time celebrated singer from Wales who is now panhandling in London for drink money. And South African actress Moira Lister plays Jo. She's an attractive girl the boys meet in a lunchroom. She's also a local scam artist.

The hilarity begins when the boys arrive in London and Whimple can't find them at the train station. They soon get split up after meeting Jo, and Tom then runs into Huw. The rest of the film is frenzy as these disparate players run around looking for one another, with David showing up to collect the cash and Tom being thrown out of the office after he and Huw have had one too many pints.

The film has many chuckles with the scurrying about, and encounters they all have. The ending is just right for a harried day of country lads in the big city. The funnies line in the film is Guinness's Whimple. He says to his editor, "How much I prefer vegetables to human beings."

This is an early look at Donald Houston (1923-1991). He was just 25 years old here and in only his fourth film. It was one of just a few comedies that he would make. After this he would make mostly mysteries and dramas. He made a few war films, and although playing a leading man for a time, he was mostly cast in second tier films. His later career saw him in some fine supporting roles of first tier films. Both Houston and Edwards were Welsh, and Houston actually worked for a time in the coal mines as a young man. He entered an acting contest held in his local town and began a career in acting.

This was only the fifth film for Alec Guinness (1914-2000). While he had been on stage for several years, Guinness was slow to come around to the silver screen. But he made some fantastic British comedies over the years. He was a great actor who could play any roles. He received many major award nominations and won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and three BAFTA awards. He still preferred the stage over film, and won a Tony on Broadway in 1964.

Most young people will know Guinness only for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films. Film buffs who haven't seen him otherwise, and those interested in the theater and acting, owe it to themselves to watch at least a few Guinness films. "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) is one of the best war movies ever made. For comedic genius and versatility, Guinness's eight roles in "Kind Hearts and Coronets" (1949) can't be topped. Among other great dramatic films in which he starred are "The Prisoner" of 1955 and "Damn the Defiant!" of 1962. He also starred in two blockbuster British TV mini-series.

Dai No 9's & Twm's Awfully Big Adventure!

[spookyrat1 · 5/10 · 16 September 2020]

Charles Frend's 1949 Ealing Studios comedy A Run for Your Money is likely better than you might expect. In short, it is about two, extremely naive and less travelled Welsh coal miners, who win a London newspaper competition of tickets to a Twickenham rugby test and 200 pounds cash. For the first time ever, the out - of - towners travel to the Big Smoke to accept their prize, though not before falling headfirst into a series of misadventures.

As many have commented it is quite funny, but most of the jokes arise from the application of stereotypes; applying to both Welsh and English characters. You do find yourself wishing the film was a deal more wittier and less predictable than it is. Having said that, there are still some notably attractive aspects about the feature.

There is a large variety of comical set-ups on display. For me, some of the sight gags work the best. The Paddington railway station public announcement to a train load of freshly arrived Taffys, requesting the Jones lads come to the station master's office. (* For those not in the know, Jones is an extremely common surname in Wales, not to mention England itself.) Anything to do with the boyos' village of Hafoduwchbenceubwllymarchogcoch, especially when it had to be written or printed out.

Much of the movie was filmed on location in London, especially those parts involving Dai's sightseeing tour around London accompanied by a pretty grifter played by Moira Lister and hapless London Echo gardening specialist writer (drafted involuntarily to be a minder), the aptly named Whimple, played by Alec Guinness. For those historically inclined, there is lots of crisply shot black and white footage, courtesy of Douglas Slocombe no less, of post -world war, famous London attractions and locations. The Tower of London, the Thames embankment and the underground tubes, amongst others feature prominently.

The cast is all very competent, but Guinness steals scenes effortlessly. His stumbling into a changing of the guards and being distracted by an employee's cactus plant at the Tower are genuinely funny and significant for both times, not trading on stereotypes. It's not surprising that this was his last Ealing movie where he was credited in a support role. The Ealing producers recognised gold when they saw it.

A Run for Your Money is a pretty typical late 1940's British "B" feature, made just that bit more distinguished, by the casting of Alec Guinness and the interesting location scenery.

Some personal information about the film.

[jet747 · 9/10 · 2 October 2016]

I Purchased the Film about eight years ago from America, unable to obtain a copy in Britain at that time.

A lovely down to earth story about two welsh miners going at that time to the big city (London) after winning a mining competition.

Some great welsh hymns were sung during the film (four part harmony) long gone by today's rugby supporters.

The story was written by Clifford Evans (Actor) who lived in my home town of Llanelli for a number of years.(Llanelli is mentioned by actor Meredith Edwards on the train taking them to London)

The valleys are back green again.(Happy memories of past times))

Welsh greenhorns getting through London alive in spite of all

[clanciai · 9/10 · 18 January 2020]

In London they get into every conceivable sort of mess and trouble, and it's difficult to say what finally saves them, if it is Alec Guinness the garden journalist who finally is rewarded by prison for his valiant honesty, of if it is Hugh Griffith the old alcoholic harpist, who kind of saves his fellow Welshmen by saving his harp, even if that one gets a hard tilme getting through alive or intact as well. At least he actually saves the film and makes it memorable and something you would love to return to for a revisit at times, it's a film well worth seeing several times, and this is not the only film he has saved: in a way, he saved every film he was in, at least to a considerable degree. Donald Houston is the honest Welshman who in his innocence does everything wrong and is too kind not to get the least suspicious about the characters who try to frame him. It's a muddled story full of anxiety, where everything constantly goes wrong, while the wonderful Welsh choir singing keeps up the good spirit of the film throughout in spite of the terrible ordeals - the poor Welsh fellows do everything they shouldn't and always get deeper into trouble for it, while without Alec Guinness they probably never would have got out of London alive. His performance is outstanding already here, an honest journalist who just wishes to stick to his gardening, while his chief bullies him into this inextricable Welsh mess. In spite of all the worries and ordeals and troubles without end, it's an impressing comedy of tremendous documentary value for showing life in London at the time. And the singing, with all the music, is formidable thorughout, while the prize goes to Hugh Griffith.

As a Comedy, This is Very Slight, but As a Sociological Document it is Invaluable

[l_rawjalaurence · 8/10 · 9 August 2016]

A RUN FOR YOUR MONEY is a slight comedy playing on stereotypes of Welshness. Brothers Dai (Donald Houston) and Twm (Meredith Edwards) come to London as winners of a competition worth £200 in prize-money and free tickets to the England v. Wales rugby union match. They manage to get separated and enjoy a series of picaresque adventures that involve them losing their money and missing the game. Everything ends happily, however, as they return tired but happy to their Welsh mining village on the rugby special train.

Charles Frend's film contains every possible stereotype of the Welsh you might think of - male voice choirs, mining, chapels, and families all possessing the same surname. Yet Clifford Evans's and Richard Hughes's script also accentuates the positive aspects of working class life - its emphasis on honesty, family stability and openness, as oppose to the crafty Londoners typified by Jo (Moira Lister) who befriends Dai in the hope of fleecing him of his prize-money.

The script sends up many of the class-prejudices dominating British society at that time: the snooty newspaper editor (Clive Morton) looks down on Dai for no apparent reason, while the patrons of the London pubs think of Twm and his compatriot Huw (Hugh Griffith) as nothing more than a pair of uncouth provincials. On the other hand everyone strives to be socially better than they actually are, an attitude typified by Mrs. Pargiter (Joyce Grenfell), a would-be high society shop-owner whose suburban vowels are clearly evident beneath her strangulated tones.

The script also manages to take side-swipes at bureaucratic attitudes blighting people's lives, from the tendency of shops to close at lunchtime on Saturdays (supposedly the busiest time of the week), to the officious guides at the Tower of London forcing visitors to travel one way round the jewel-festooned halls. As befits a studio dedicated to middle class mores, director Frend makes fun of National Coal Board, one of the quangoes created in 1946 as part of the Labour Government's nationalization program. Ostensibly created to improve people's lives, it still condemns most miners to the drudgery of long hours down the pit.

For social historians A RUN FOR YOUR MONEY also offers valuable glimpses of postwar London, with streets thronged with shabbily-dressed citizens, deserted tourist attractions, and cars and buses that had obviously seen better days. Yet the overall tone remains an optimistic one, attesting to people's abilities to remain cheerful even in adverse circumstances. This spirit is never better typified than in a scene taking place in a local cinema in Paddington, where the entire audience join in a chorus of "All Through the Night" performed in Welsh by Huw (on the harp) and Twm (on vocals). The spectators might not know their language, but they can join in the English refrain. Community singing is one of those rituals that transcends class and regional divisions and brings people together.

The studio even manages a little in-joke: as Dai and Twm run out of that cinema, we see that the film on show that week is PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, one of Ealing's biggest comedy hits of 1949.