By the Shortest of Heads
4 /10 1 Votes4
Produced by Will Barker Country United Kingdom | Genre Silent film | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date 1915 Writer Jack Hulcup, Percy Manton Similar movies He Snoops to Conquer (1944), South American George (1941), George in Civvy Street (1946), Feather Your Nest (1937), Trouble Brewing (1939) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
By the Shortest of Heads was a 1915 British film starring George Formby as a stableboy who outwits a gang of villains. It was Formby's first film; he was aged ten at the time. The film is now considered lost, with the last-known copy having been destroyed in 1940.
Contents
Plot
Formby played a stable boy who outwits a gang of villains and wins a £10,000 prize when he comes first in a horse race.
Cast
Background
George Formby Snr was worried that his son, George Formby, would watch him on stage and begin a career on stage; he was against the boy following in his footsteps, saying "one fool in the family is enough". After a year of Formby working at a stables in Middleham, he was apprenticed to Thomas Scourfield at Epsom, where he ran his first professional races at the age of 10, when he weighed less than 4 stone (56 lb; 25 kg). In 1915 Formby Snr allowed his son to appear on screen, taking the lead in By the Shortest of Heads. After completing the filming, Formby Jnr was sent to Ireland to continue his jockey training, as were the five horses Formby had purchased that year, which joined others he had previously bought.
The film is now considered lost, with the last-known copy having been destroyed in 1940.
References
By the Shortest of Heads WikipediaBy the Shortest of Heads IMDb