PreWar at the pictures: shooting brake stars in Song of Paris

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A few weeks ago, we published an article about the surprising selection of pre-war cars which appeared in the 1954 film The Crowded Day—a Bentley 6½-Litre, a Figoni et Falaschi-bodied Delage and an unidentified Edwardian. As we mentioned then, The Crowded Day is currently available to buy on Blu-Ray and DVD from Adelphi Films Ltd. as part of a two-disc set with another Adelphi gem, Song of Paris (1952).

Since Song of Paris's supporting cast includes another line-up of pre-war motors, although not quite as exotic as those in The Crowded Day, we felt compelled to take a closer look. It's a quintessentially English comedy in which Dennis Price plays Matthew Ibbetson, the socially-inept heir to a mighty stomach pill empire who travels to France in a bid to boost Continental sales of his family's gastric physic. While there, he crosses paths with the gorgeous Clementine (played with all the appropriate charm and vivacity by Anne Vernon), a dancer. After he rescues her from a compromising incident in the middle of a busy Paris boulevard, she falls head over heels for him and he eventually reciprocates in characteristically repressed fashion.

The fly in the ointment is the ridiculous, penniless and generally repulsive Comte Marcel de Sarliac, a sort of proto-Dick Dastardly who monomaniacally pursues his unscrupulous aim of claiming Clementine for himself. This builds towards a climax in which Matthew and the Comte meet for a stand-off on Hampstead Heath.

Another post-war one-off

PreWarCar's specific interest concerns the vehicles used to ferry the Comte and his henchmen to the duel. As in The Crowded Day, we have another instance of vernacular post-war coachbuilding on a pre-war chassis. This time, however, it involves neither a Bentley nor a sports body, but a circa 1930/31 Packard wearing shooting brake coachwork. As with so many post-war estate conversions, the construction is simple rather than artful, although there is something oddly attractive about the small windows, which make the Packard's roofline look lower than it is.

Sadly, the Surrey registration BPK 57 is no longer attached to anything. Most likely, the Packard was scrapped long ago. That's a great pity because it's typical of the sort of treatment so many pre-war cars received to give them a second lease of life, of which so little survives to this day. The web reveals photographs of several 1934 Packards sporting much higher-quality period brake bodies by recognised coachbuilders, but we couldn't find anything quite like the Song of Paris car.

Cabs on camera

The taxis are not Austin 'Low Loaders' but the lesser-spotted Morris Commercial G2s. In fact, BLT 417 was an extremely prolific film star in its own right. A search of the Internet Movie Cars Database reveals that it also starred in Night Boat to Dublin, Here Come the Huggetts, A Run for Your Money, Seven Days to Noon, Night and the City, One Wild Oat and Appointment in London, which all date from 1946 to 1953. However, we can find no other credits for CXT 337.

The precise identity of BLT 417 has caused some confusion, as the 'Six' badge on the radiator would suggest it's a G2SW Super Six of 1937-39, with the 1,818cc overhead-valve straight-six, but its registration series was apparently issued in December, 1934, and January, 1935. That would make it a G2 Junior, but they were powered by a 1,802cc sidevalve four. Is it plausible that an operator might have crammed a six into the engine bay when it became available in the late 1930s? CXT 337 also wears the 'Six' badge.

To see these vehicles in action, you will have to see the film, which we can very much recommend. Its humour is not necessarily sophisticated or original but it is nevertheless very funny. The contrast between the inert, bowler-hatted Englishman and the ludicrous, melodramatic foreigner makes for superb visual comedy, and the whole picture is a rewarding trip down memory lane to an altogether different time. Take a look at www.adelphifilms.com to find out more.

Words: Zack Stiling
Stills reproduced with the kind permission of Adelphi Films Ltd.
 

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