Pot Luck | |
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Directed by | Tom Walls |
Written by | Ben Travers |
Produced by | Michael Balcon |
Starring |
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Cinematography | |
Edited by | Alfred Roome |
Music by | |
Distributed by | Gainsborough Pictures |
Release date | April 1936 |
Running time | 71 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Pot Luck is a 1936 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. The screenplay is by Ben Travers based loosely on his 1930 stage play A Night Like This . It also featured Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Diana Churchill and Martita Hunt. The cast included members of the regular Aldwych Farce company.
A retired Scotland Yard detective, Patrick Fitzpatrick (Tom Walls) comes back to take one final case, tracking down a missing vase which has been stolen by a gang of thieves specialising in taking art treasures. His investigation takes him to the home of the innocent Mr Pye (Robertson Hare), whose house has been used by the crooks to hide their proceeds. [1] [2]
Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a neutral review, praising the direction and the acting of Tom Walls and of Robertson Hare, but deigning to praise Ralph Lynn for his performance explaining that he had a peculiar antipathy toward his acting. [3]
Martita Edith Hunt was an Argentine-born British theatre and film actress. She had a dominant stage presence and played a wide range of powerful characters. She is best remembered for her performance as Miss Havisham in David Lean's Great Expectations.
Diana Josephine Churchill was an English actress. Churchill was a crisp, classy blonde with blue eyes who appeared in several British films, playing the sardonic heroine in a handful of comic chillers during the early 1930s. She was mainly a theatre actress into the war years and after, an actress for "all theatrical seasons" who was "renowned for her versatility in playing Shakespeare, Restoration comedy, farce, Chekhov and revue".
Tudor Rose is a 1936 British film directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Cedric Hardwicke and Nova Pilbeam.
Thomas Kirby Walls was an English stage and film actor, producer and director, best known for presenting and co-starring in the Aldwych farces in the 1920s and for starring in and directing the film adaptations of those plays in the 1930s.
John Robertson Hare, OBE was an English actor, who came to fame in the Aldwych farces. He is remembered by more recent audiences for his performances as the Archdeacon in the popular BBC sitcom, All Gas and Gaiters.
Ralph Clifford Lynn was an English actor who had a 60-year career, and is best remembered for playing comedy parts in the Aldwych farces first on stage and then in film.
If You Could Only Cook (1935) is a screwball comedy of mistaken identity starring Herbert Marshall as a frustrated automobile executive and Jean Arthur as a young woman who talks him into posing as her husband so they can land jobs as a butler and a cook.
Fighting Stock is a 1935 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also features Robertson Hare, Lesley Wareing and Herbert Lomas. its plot involves a Brigadier who retires to a country cottage for some quiet fishing, but it soon overtaken by madcap events. The screenplay is by Ben Travers based on his earlier stage play of the same name, and the cast included cast members from Travers's Aldwych Farces.
Foreign Affaires is a 1935 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also features Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Norma Varden and Cecil Parker. The screenplay is by Ben Travers, and the cast included cast members from the Walls and Travers Aldwych Farces.
Just My Luck is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ralph Lynn, Winifred Shotter, Davy Burnaby and Robertson Hare. The screenplay was written by Ben Travers based on a 1932 Aldwych farce by H.F. Maltby, Fifty-Fifty, adapted from the French play Azaïs by Louis Verneuil and Georges Berr.
Gordon James was an English actor who became known as the "heavy" in the Aldwych farces, between 1923 and 1933. He also appeared in some twenty films between 1929 and 1942.
Jack of All Trades is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and Jack Hulbert and starring Hulbert, Gina Malo and Robertson Hare. It is based on the 1934 play Youth at the Helm. The film was made at Islington Studios, with sets designed by Alex Vetchinsky.
Sensation is a 1936 British crime film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring John Lodge, Diana Churchill, Francis Lister and Felix Aylmer. The screenplay concerns a crime reporter who solves a murder case using a piece of evidence he found amongst the victim's possessions.
A Cup of Kindness is a 1934 British comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls. It also featured Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Dorothy Hyson and Claude Hulbert. It was based on a 1929 play by Ben Travers of the same name, one of the Aldwych farces, and had four of the same cast members. Graham Moffatt, later of Will Hay fame, made his debut appearance as a choir boy in this film.
The White Angel is a 1936 American historical drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Kay Francis, Ian Hunter and Donald Woods. The film depicts Florence Nightingale's pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War. It was produced and distributed by Hollywood studio Warner Brothers.
The Aldwych farces were a series of twelve stage farces presented at the Aldwych Theatre, London, nearly continuously from 1923 to 1933. All but three of them were written by Ben Travers. They incorporate and develop British low comedy styles, combined with clever word-play. The plays were presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls and starred Walls and Ralph Lynn, supported by a regular company that included Robertson Hare, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter, Ethel Coleridge, and Gordon James.
For Valour is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Walls, Ralph Lynn and Veronica Rose. It was made at Shepperton Studios, with sets designed by Oscar Werndorff. Unlike previous films starring Walls and Lynn, it was based on an original screenplay rather than one of the Aldwych Farces. Both Walls and Lynn played dual roles of two Boer War veterans and their son and grandson respectively. It was the last time the two actors, who had been one of the most popular film comedy teams of the decade, appeared together on screen.
Stormy Weather is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Walls, Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare.
The World's in Love is a 1935 Austrian comedy film directed by Viktor Tourjansky and starring Mártha Eggerth, Leo Slezak and Ida Wüst. It is based on the operetta Clo-Clo. The film's sets were designed by the art director Julius von Borsody. It was remade in Britain the following year as Dreams Come True.
One Way Ticket is a 1935 American crime film directed by Herbert Biberman starring Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Conklin and Walter Connolly. The film is based on the 1934 novel One-Way Ticket by Ethel Turner.