Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Catherina If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

mark.waltz One of the more obscure Broadway musicals to get a big movie musical treatment, "Half a Sixpence" (which remember is better than Half a Penny) is a light-hearted version of H.G. Well's "Kipps". Like the classic British musical "Me and My Girl" (which would become more famous in America in the 1980's), "Half a Sixpence" tells the tale of a British commoner who all of a sudden finds out he is rich. Will money and position change him? Tommy Steele repeats his role from the British and Broadway hit and does an excellent job. Those who found him annoying in "Finian's Rainbow" will find him more so here, but I am not in that camp. Once a British rock star, he scored much success on the musical stage, and shows many talents as a singer, dancer, comic and actor. The problem with this movie is that it just tries to be so much. Too many strange montages, way over-the-top musical numbers and so much energy, that there is sometimes little opportunity to catch your breath. Julia Foster is sweet and a little feisty as Kipps' old girlfriend who saved the half a sixpence he gave her as his promise to marry her, yet finds him different after he gets ahold of a fortune and becomes engaged to Helen, a wealthy noblewoman (Penelope Horner). Helen isn't a snob (although her mother, played with aristocratic haughtiness by Pamela Brown is) and accepts Kipps for who he is. Appropriately so, the wealthy young lady has no musical numbers, the majority of those being saved for Steele.Individually, each of the musical numbers are fine, but there are way too many, and some of them go on too long. "If the Rain's Gonna Fall" is a sweet charming number that is like an ensemble "Singin' in the Rain", but "Money to Burn" ("I'd Buy Me a Banjo") is slightly out of place and doesn't move the plot along at all. An energetic boat racing sequence is fun to watch (with Steele singing over the action), and the wedding "Flash Bang Wallop!" ("One More Picture!") goes into a riotous dance that is fun but lengthy. The title song is sung sweetly by Steele and Foster, while the opening "All in the Cause of Economy" is perhaps the best song integrated into the film. Anne's solo, "I Know What I Am", is slightly depressing. Veteran actor Cyril Ritchard ("Peter Pan'" Captain Hook) is fun in a supporting role, while Broadway veteran Grover Dale is seen briefly as one of Steele's pals.Directed by the amazing George Sidney, the veteran director behind many classic MGM musicals (and "Bye Bye Birdie"), "Half a Sixpence" is a noble effort that somehow goes slightly overboard to the point where you want to say "Time Out!", and not for good behavior.

ianlouisiana It doesn't seem that long ago when I saw this on the big screen complete with an intermission and a glossy programme.As a matter of fact it was the height of the "Swinging Sixties" and perhaps not the most obvious time to make a musical set in Edwardian times with an ex-fifties pop star in the lead role.The words "British" and "musical" are of course antithetical,the list of disasters and near disasters in this bastardised genre too long and too well-known to recount here.Presumably the producers hoped that by bringing in George Sidney they could breathe life into an already mouldering corpse.Sadly "Half a sixpence" was not a Lazarus-like project. The best Mr Sidney could do was to give it a semblance of life,even his considerable talents could not provide that vital spark to set the heart beating and the blood pulsing. Mr Tommy Steele,a decade earlier the archetypal cheeky cockney pop singer who was the best Britain could do in the rock n' roll industry's birth-pangs,had gamely fought his way from guitar-slinging to "family entertainer"status via pantomime and Variety bills.Shrewdly managed,he did not try to compete with the emerging "Beat Group" generation but capitalised on his broader appeal and toothy charm.Sadly it was not enough to smile and shake his blond hair a lot when it came to making a big movie, you needed that special quality that forces people to look at you rather than those round you,and he didn't have it. Watching "Half a Sixpence" is like indulgently watching your favourite nephew perform after Christmas dinner.While he chirps away merrily your eyelids droop and every so often when he gets extra loud you wake up with a start and pretend to be enjoying it. It isn't actually bad - it's just totally non-involving.The songs are blandly - if competently- performed,the dances likewise.The "Big Number","Flash,Bang,Wallop" neither flashes,bangs nor wallops. Miss Julia Foster has clearly been instructed to reign in her effervescent personality(and dye her hair so as not to rival Mr Steele's)but she still manages to be the best thing about the film. A lot of talented people did their very best to make "Half a sixpence" work.It must have been heartbreaking for them to put in so much effort to so little avail.Opening out the production from the relatively modest confines of the theatre destroyed it's warmth and intimacy.Replacing those attributes with brassiness and wide grins was,I'm afraid a retrograde step.

Blueghost Tommy Steele helps salvage a somewhat labored production of a London-cum-Broadway musical hit. As far as musicals go it really strives for an A, and nearly hits its mark, but there's a distinctive lack of umph in the production. That and it also feels simplified, as per rube2424's comments.The other part of the problem with "Half of Sixpence" is that the plot, what little there is of it, hardly plays any kind of roll in the film. The story suffers for it as the film seems to move from one scene to the next with little reason. The plot's there, but there's a kind of reserve holding back what could've been a stronger impact, and hence a better film.The musical numbers are OK, and on par with a lot of other stuff that came out at the same time, but I'd be hard pressed to remember any single tune or song that really stuck out.The British effort at a Hollywood musical was a step in the right direction, and, if one keeps an open mind, creates a respectable film as far as musical's go. It captures some of the magic of other big budgeted musicals, but the genre at the time was waning, and it shows somewhat in this film.Even so, it has a kind of appeal. Much of the comedy is flat, though energetic, and, as I stated earlier, the score and other musical numbers (except for maybe the title song) aren't all that memorable.It's worth a night's rental if you're into musicals, but don't say I didn't way ya!RESCREENED Feb 25th and 25th Seeing this film again with perhaps a more cogent mind, I see that perhaps I was a bit hard on this film. One of the problems I had with this movie is that the story is essentially a classic British romance Austen like novel put into musical format. We essentially watch a couple that are coupled to one another at a very young age. We follow their progress, and explore their highs and pitfalls. So, unlike lot of American musicals, this one is not plot driven; i.e. Prof. Hill trying to pull a fast one on River City in "The Music Man", or Kelley's Don Lockwood trying to make a star out of Cathy Selzden, or Prof. Higgens trying to make a princess out of a common flower girl. "Half a Sixpence" is more thematic, and grander in scope in terms of it actually explores the combined heart of a couple that were meant for one another. Not quite my "cup of tea" (to borrow from our friends across the Atlantic), but still a very decent watch.Enjoy it for what it is.

jeff carol podge37 This is a very well acted and energetic musical. Tommy Steel and Julie Foster in the lead parts were brilliantly cast.The banjo scene in this was well choreographed, put together and acted out. To top the whole scene the banjo playing was superb.A brilliant family musical it gets a 10/10 from us. But then we are Tommy Steele fans.