Dandy Dick is a 1935 Will Hay film. Will worked on the adaption of Sir Arthur Pinero's play of the same name with Frank Miller, Clifford Grey and director William Beaudine. Will plays a vicar that needs to come up with a £1000 to fix the church steeple. He bets on Dandy Dick at 10-1. There's plenty of farce and slapstick with lots of yelling. It kept me entertained to the end but I like Will Hay and the like.
Bank Holiday is a 1938 British comedy drama that's also known as Three On A Weekend. Oddly, it's not part of The British Film series but part of The Rank Collection. Rank DVDs have been turning up on Hamilton Books for the last several months, usually under 6 smackaroonies. That's often a bit cheaper than the British DVD and you don't need a special player to play the DVD.
The original story is by Hans Wilhelm and Rodney Ackland, the scenario is by Rodney Ackland and Roger Burford, the director is Carol Reed. It's Carol's fifth credited feature, he followed it with Penny Paradise which I watched, and enjoyed, the middle of last year. In 1940 Carol would direct Night Train To Munich. I enjoyed that. I'm guessing Carol is better known for the 1949 film The Third Man, or the 1962 Mutiny On The Bounty. Most of his other films aren't ones I've seen, they have a tendency to be more dramas than crime films or comedies. I'd rather watch the later two genres.
Bank Holiday follows people as they travel to the seaside for vacation. There's a family, a nurse and her boyfriend taking a holiday in a hotel, and a couple of ladies looking for romance. There's ups and downs, most of the stories work out well in the end. It could use a few more gags, there's some heavy drama woven in there, but I got to the end credits OK. I'd even guess I'd watch it again.
The Gang's All Here is the 1939 sequel to Smash And Grab. Ralph Spense wrote the screenplay and Thornton Freeland directed. It's got Jack Buchanan back as John Forrest, insurance investigator. He's just about to retire when a juicy case comes along to pull him back. His wife, now played by Googie Withers, gets right in there and helps with the investigation. Edward Everett Horton plays Jack's comical butler, he helps too. Edward has been a favorite of mine since I was a teenager. Otto Kruger and Jack La Rue are the villains. It's not quite as much fun as the first film but it was still entertaining. Glad to have picked them up. They'll get watched again.
Smash And Grab is a 1937 British film that came out in the US as Larceny Street. Jack Buchanan wrote the scenario, Tim Whelan wrote the story and directed, Ralph Spence wrote the screenplay.
Jack plays John Forrest, an insurance investigator, Elsie Randolph plays his wife Alice. She's right in the thick of it, going undercover into the middle of the murdering robber's barbershop as a manicurist. The robber's MO is to break a jewelry store window and run off with the jewels. One of the robbers is a hard headed guy and he kills their cheating partner in crime. It's pretty much some lighthearted fun with a bit of detecting. It breezes along and I had a laugh or two. There's a sequel that's next to watch.
Aren't Men Beasts is a 1937 comedy film from Britain. It shares a disc in that 2 movie set to the right. I watched Banana Ridge the other day. This has the same two main leads, Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton, but as different characters. It's another romantic farce based on a play, Vernon Sylvaine wrote Aren't Men Beasts for the stage, Marjorie Deans and William Freshman wrote the screenplay, Graham Cuts directed. Graham had directed the 1932 Arthur Wontner film The Sign of Four: Sherlock Holmes' Greatest Case but I haven't seen any of his other works. I have a copy of his 1933 film Three Men In A Boat but who knows when I'll get to that. I enjoyed AMB and would watch it again. Here's a video of Sid James interviewing Robertson Hare.
One Frightened Night is a 1935 mystery comedy based on a Stuart Palmer story, the screenplay is by Wellyn Totman, the director is Christy Cabanne. Stuart wrote 14 mystery novels about his best known character Hildegarde Withers. There were 5 movies made with Edna Mae Oliver in the title role. I've read about half the books and seen all the movies. Entertaining for the most part. Wellyn started writing titles for a film in 1927, he wrote stories and screenplays for 51 other films. His last film was in 1944 and in 1956 he wrote two episodes of The Millionaire. I can't say I'm familiar with any of his films. We used to watch The Millionaire but I haven't seen any episodes since the 80s. Christy was mostly a silent director with over half of his 166 films from that era. I haven't seen many of his films, only two, The Outcasts Of Poker Flats and The Mummy's Hand. He did some uncredited work on the 1925 film Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ. I have it but haven't gotten around to watching it.
One Frightened Night takes place in a rich guy's house. He's called all his relatives together and he tells them he's going to give each one a million bucks so they don't have to pay the inheritance tax. While this is going on, a young woman shows up and claims to be his long lost daughter. Now he's going to give all his money to her. She's happy, everyone else, not so happy. Then another woman shows up claiming to be the daughter. Then the first daughter to arrive is murdered and the police are called. It's mostly yakking with a bit of running about as they chase each other around the house. It's a bit lighthearted but there are some gun shots and a punch or two. I enjoyed it and I'd seen it before. You can see it in the link above.
Inspector Hornleigh On Holiday is the second of the trilogy of Inspector Hornleigh films. It came out in 1939 and Gordon Harker and Alastair Sim return as Inspector Hornleigh and Sergeant Bingham. The movie opens with the pair on the last days of their two weeks at the seaside. It's been cold, wet and miserable so a nice murder warms things up a bit. It turns out that the dead man isn't the dead man. So who is he? You can find out on YouTube.
I hadn't read any of the novels by Leo Grex, he also wrote under his real name, Leonard Gribble, and 6 other pseudonyms. I doubt I'm going to go looking for them at this stage. The movie was written by Sidney Gilliat, Frank Launder and JOC Orton. Walter Forde is the director. They all provide an entertaining story and some laughs.
Inspector Hornleigh is the first of the Inspector Hornleigh films, it came out in 1938, it was followed by two sequels. The character was created by John P Wynn, writing under the name Hans Wolfgang Priwin. for the BBC radio program Monday Night At Seven. It was one segment in the 50 minute long show and it ran from 1937 to 1940. The movie is written by Gerald Elliott, Richard Llewellyn and Bryan Edgar Wallace with Eugene Ford directing. They've made the radio series over and the movies are much more comedic. Gordon Harker plays Inspector Hornleigh and Alastair Sim plays Sergeant Bingham. It was Alastair that prompted me to pick up a copy of the trilogy but I have gotten to like Gordon quite a bit. They work well together, the actors, not the characters. The Inspector is a sharp cookie and the poor Sergeant is the comic relief machine. He's often out of his depth and easily bamboozled, especially by a pretty face.
The main plot concerns someone stealing the nation's budget for a sneaky peak before it's announced. Someone could make some money out of the knowledge. A man is found murdered in his room at a boarding house. The Inspector is called in, he soon finds a link to the man with the nation's budget. Our heroes interview some suspects and do some detecting. Eventually he solves the case.
There's murder and merriment, just like I like. I thought it was a good story, plenty of suspects and good dialog, I got a few laughs out of it. I bought the DVD that's available from Amazon, it's the same DVD available here as in the UK, it's not marked with any region code and there's nothing on the DVD or the printed case insert to tell you who put out the DVD. It's got a DVDr instead of a pressed DVD. The quality is fair to good, sound is good. The link in the title of the film has all three films processed into a block. It's too bad as that's the best copy on YouTube. Worth a look for both comedy and mystery fans.
Strange People is a 1933 mystery film that was directed by Richard Thorpe. Jack Townley wrote the story and the screenplay. A group of people are all invited to a house one evening. They find that they are all part of the same jury that convicted a man for murder. There's a bit of business that shows the jury that they could easily have convicted an innocent man on circumstantial evidence. The man that brought them there wants them to sign a petition that might give the convicted man a reprieve. Then the man "murdered" in the bit of business turns out to be really dead. Who dunnit? The police arrive and there's plenty of action as they investigate. I found a copy at the Internet Archive, it's the same as the copy on YouTube. I've put it in a link above. I enjoyed it. I might watch it again but who knows.
Those Were The Days is a 1934 Will Hay film that is part of The British Film series from Network. I hadn't seen it before and as I'm interested in getting all of Will's films I ordered one. I paid $6.12 less than a month ago and it's now $7.24 from the Amazon Global Store. That's Amazon US selling stuff that's shipped from Amazon UK. Sometimes it's cheaper to go through the AUS site but usually I wind up looking there because AUK isn't shipping that DVD to the US. Without proof, it seems that there are more titles that ship to the US than not, I rarely find one listed as not available for shipping to the US, usually an Amazon partner will sell it and ship it from their location.
Those Were The Days is a farce that started out as a play called The Magistrate. It was written by Arthur Wing Pinero. Four writers: Jack Jordan, Frank Launder, Frank Miller and Fred Thompson, worked on getting it to the screen. I'm a big fan of Frank Launder and seek out his films. I suspect most of the 21 films he wrote before this one are going to be hard to find on DVD. I actually have seen Josser In The Army and didn't care that much for it, mostly because of the main star of the picture Ernest Lotinga, he didn't appeal to me.
Thomas Bently is the director. Most of Thomas's films were silent, he started directing in 1912 and worked until 1941. I haven't seen much of his other work. I know I've seen his 1937 film Murder At The Baskervilles with Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes and I did like his 1934 crime film The Scotland Yard Mystery.
In Those Were The Days Will is a strict magistrate who has a son that's a bit of a tearaway. Will's married to a wife with a secret, she lied about her age and her 15 year old son is really 20. John Mills plays the son. He gets Will to go with him to the music hall where we see some of the acts of the era. Nice that some of these acts got committed to film so people can see what passed for entertainment at the time.
There's plenty of noise as more of the family show up at the music hall. A fight breaks out and the mom and her sister are arrested. They get sentenced to 7 days in the pokey by Will. He didn't recognize them as they were heavily veiled. They won't have to serve any time as the whole story comes out in the end. It's a good reminder not to lie to your spouse, it always seems to catch up to people at the most inopportune time. I enjoyed it and would watch it again.