All Over the Town

After serving in the RAF during the Second World War, Nat Hearn (Norman Wooland) returns to his prewar job as a reporter on the Tormouth Clarion. He meets and is attracted to Sally Thorpe (Sarah Churchill), who had replaced him when he enlisted and has been given notice now he has returned. He arranges for her to be kept on and they spend time together and become engaged to marry. Later, Nat becomes a co-owner and editor of the paper, but his partner disagrees with Nat's new editorial policy which often involves upsetting people who provide the paper with much of its advertising revenue, so he arranges for most of the staff to take holiday time-off simultaneously to prevent Nat's opposition to Tormouth council's proposed redevelopment scheme from which the councillors plan to profit personally. At a public meeting called by the council, Nat and his small band of supporters manage to convince the locals to support Nat in the dispute.

• Norman Wooland as Nat Hearn
• Sarah Churchill as Sally Thorpe
• Cyril Cusack as Gerald Vane
• Ronald Adam as Sam Vane
• Bryan Forbes as Trumble
• James Hayter as Baines
• Fabia Drake as Miss Gelding
• John Salew as Sleek
• Stanley Baker as Barnes
• Edward Rigby as Grimmett
• Patrick Doonan as Burton
• Eleanor Summerfield as Beryl Hopper
• Trefor Jones as Tenor
• Sandra Dorne as Marlene
• Hubert Leslie as Skinner
• Henry Edwards as Major Martindale
• Frederick Leister as Wainer
• Patrick Macnee as Mr. Vince
• Anthony Oliver as PC Butt
• Erik Chitty as Frobisher
• Walter Horsbrugh as Mr. Thornton
• Lydia Bilbrook as Mrs Vane (uncredited)

All Over the Town was the fourth of five films produced by Wessex Film Productions, a production company founded in 1947 by Ian Dalrymple and Jack Lee, both formerly of the Crown Film Unit.[1] The film was shot in Lyme Regis.[2]

The New York Times described it as a "slow, dogmatic little picture" with a "dog-eared" plot.[3] In The Times, the film's plot was seen as unoriginal, executed "without inspiration or any originality of thought".[4]

By the beginning of the 21st century, the only known surviving copy of the film was the negative at the BFI National Film and Television Archive. In 2005, the Lyme Regis Film Society commissioned the production of a new print from the negative. This copy of the film is housed in Lyme Regis Museum and has been shown at the local Regent Cinema on a few occasions.[2] In 2018, and again in 2020, it was shown on the UK television channel Talking Pictures TV.

• All Over the Town at IMDb
• All Over the Town at the BFI Film & TV Database
• Review of film at Variety