HALF A SIXPENCE
1967

Half a Sixpence is a 1967 British musical directed by George Sidney and choreographed by Gillian Lynne. This was the final film made by Sidney, who also directed Annie Get Your Gun, Scaramouche, and Kiss Me Kate.

The story is based on a 1905 novel by H.G. Wells - Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul.
A previous, non musical film version of the story, called Kipps, was made in 1941 starring Michael Redgrave, and a silent version in 1921.

Wells was a Fabian Socialist. When fellow Fabian Socialist George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion he did the exact reverse of what Wells did in Kipps. He took the flower girl Eliza and had her schooled in manners by the overbearing Henry Higgins to improve her station whereas here we have the exact opposite happening to Arthur Kipps. Of illegitimate birth, apprenticed as a draper's assistant and living in the basement of his employer's store with other apprentices, one fine day, Arthur's ship comes in when a relative leaves him an inheritance and a guaranteed annual income.

But unlike Audrey Hepburn, Tommy Steele is still at heart from the lower classes. So the story of Half A Sixpence is his personal struggle to find his place.

Set in Kent during Edwardian England, and featuring beautiful on-location photography, the plot centres on Arthur Kipps, a draper's assistant who falls in love with a chambermaid named Ann.

PLOT:
Arthur Kipps, an orphan apprenticed as a draper's assistant and living in the basement of his employer's store has a sudden change of fortunewhen his wealthy grandfather dies and leaves him a large inheritance, But how ill he deal with his sidden change in firtune?

CAST:
Tommy Steele ... Arthur Kipps
Julia Foster ... Ann
Cyril Ritchard ... Harry Chitterlow
Penelope Horner ... Helen
Elaine Taylor ... Victoria
Grover Dale ... Pearce
Hilton Edwards ... Shalford
Julia Sutton ... Flo
Leslie Meadows ... Buggins
Sheila Falconer ... Kate
Pamela Brown ... Mrs. Washington
James Villiers ... Hubert
Christopher Sandford ... Sid
Jean Anderson ... Lady Botting
Allan Cuthbertson ... Wilkins
Aleta Morrison ... Laura
Gerald Campion ... Fat Boy
Deborah Permentor ... Young Ann
Jeffrey Chandler ... Young Kipps
Barry Sinclair ... Woodrow

DIRECTOR: GEORGE SIDNEY

RUNNING TIME: 143 MIN