Derby Day is a 1952 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Googie Withers, John McCallum, Peter Graves, Suzanne Cloutier and Gordon Harker. An ensemble piece, it portrays several characters on their way to the Derby Day races at Epsom Downs Racecourse. It was an attempt to revive the success that Neagle and Wilding had previously enjoyed on screen together.[2] To promote the film, Wilcox arranged for Neagle to launch the film at the 1952 Epsom Derby.[3] In the United States, the film was released as Four Against Fate.

Derby Day
Directed by	Herbert Wilcox
Written by	Arthur Austen John Baines Monckton Hoffe Alan Melville
Produced by	Maurice Cowan Hebert Wilcox
Starring	Anna Neagle Michael Wilding Googie Withers John McCallum Peter Graves Suzanne Cloutier Gordon Harker
Narrated by	Raymond Glendenning
Cinematography	Mutz Greenbaum
Edited by	Bill Lewthwaite
Music by	Anthony Collins
Production company	Herbert Wilcox Productions
Distributed by	British Lion Film Corporation
Release date	9 May 1952 (1952-05-09)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£150,010 (UK)[1]

While making the film, Wilding began dating Elizabeth Taylor, who was in London filming Ivanhoe, and later became her second husband.[4]

Plot

On the morning of the Epsom Derby, a disparate group of people prepare to go to the races. Lady Helen Forbes, a recently widowed aristocrat, is planning to make the journey in spite of the disapproval of her social set who consider it unseemly to go while still in mourning. David Scott, a newspaper cartoonist, is ordered to go by his editor against his wishes. As part of a charity raffle, dissolute film star Gerald Berkeley must reluctantly escort a wealthy grand dame to Epsom. When the woman falls and injures her leg, her crafty housekeeper arranges for one of the young French maids to go in her place.

In Hackney, a lodger kills a man with whom his wife is having an affair. The lodger and his wife plan to flee the country and travel to Epsom, where he knows a tipster who may be able to smuggle them out.

Helen and David meet and find themselves sharing confidences, as they were both bereaved in the same air crash. It seems likely that they will meet again. The lodger and the wife are spotted and arrested. A taxi driver's wife fulfils her life ambition to see the races.

Cast

References

Bibliography

• Harper, Sue & Porter, Vincent. British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Mayer, Geoff. Guide to British cinema. Greenwood Publishing, 2003.
• Walker, Alexander. Elizabeth. Orion, 1997.

External links

• Derby Day at IMDb