A RARE screening of a film of JB Priestley's The Good Companions highlights the Bradford writer's "overlooked" contribution to British cinema.

The 1957 musical version of Priestley's novel will be shown at Square Chapel Arts Centre in Halifax, accompanied by an exhibition of memorabilia from various productions of The Good Companions. The screening is sponsored by the Bradford-based JB Priestley Society.

Shot in Technicolor and CinemaScope, the film follows joiner Jess Oakroyd leaving his family home in the fictional town of Bruddersford to join a struggling touring concert party, The Dinky Doos, and find a new purpose in life. It stars Halifax-born Eric Portman, who became one of the biggest names in British cinema, Celia Johnson, Janette Scott and her real-life mother, Dame Thora Hird.

The screening marks the 35th anniversary of Priestley's death, 90 years since the novelist, playwright and broadcaster was first published, and the 50th anniversary of Eric Portman's death and comes ahead of Stephen Daldry's acclaimed National Theatre production of Priestley's An Inspector Calls heading for the Alhambra in January.

Manningham-born JB Priestley, referenced as the ‘the last great man of English letters’, had his biggest success as a novelist with 1929's The Good Companions.

Film Consultant and JB Priestley Society member Bill Lawrence, who will introduce the film, said: “JB Priestley is one of the major literary figures of the 20th Century. His contribution to British cinema is often overlooked, but from the The Old Dark House to Alec Guinness in Last Holiday, he was offering something new to audiences. The Old Dark House, based on Priestley's novel Benighted, defined the film genre of a stormy night, finding refuge in a house full of people that led to films like the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Not many people can claim credit for setting up a film genre. Priestley's narrative ideas were lauded when other people used them, but forgotten when he used them.

"His contribution to cinema was significant; he wrote two screenplays for Gracie Fields just before the Second World War, when she was a huge star, the 1950 film Last Holiday, which he scripted from his dark comedy, was re-made in 2006 starring Queen Latifah. There are the adaptations of his plays and novels by top film directors. What we don't know much about is that in the 1930s Priestley took his family to stay on a ranch in Arizona and he went into Hollywood to re-write film scripts. He refused a credit on them, probably because he had a negative view of Hollywood, so there could be film classics out there scripted by him."

Of The Good Companions film, Mr Lawrence said: "This is the second film version, the other was in 1933. The 1957 musical has a sense of post-war optimism. Priestley's work and political subtext is very relevant today. In The Good Companions he brings together a wide range of people."

Michael Nelson, the JB Priestley Society’s Information Officer, calls the film “a version of Priestley’s most popular and enduring novel which rivals some of the great Hollywood musicals of the era but which retains much of the essential Englishness of the original story.”

* The Good Companions will be screened at Square Chapel Arts Centre in Halifax on Sunday, November 24. Call (01422) 349422 or visit Squarechapel.co.uk