Rookery Nook (film)

Last updated

Rookery Nook
"Rookery Nook" (film).jpg
Sheet music for featured song
Directed by Tom Walls
Written by W. P. Lipscomb
Ben Travers
Based onthe farce by Ben Travers
Produced by Herbert Wilcox
StarringTom Walls
Ralph Lynn
Winifred Shotter
Mary Brough
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
William Shenton
Edited by Maclean Rogers (uncredited)
Production
companies
Distributed by Woolf & Freedman Film Service (UK)
MGM (US)
Release dates
11 February 1930 (London) (UK)
21 June 1930 (US)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£14,000 [1] or $270,000 [2]
Box office£150,000 (England) [1] or $550,000 (UK) [2]

Rookery Nook is a 1930 film farce, directed by Tom Walls, with a script by Ben Travers. It is a screen adaptation of the original 1926 Aldwych farce of the same title. The film was known in the U.S. as One Embarrassing Night. [3]

Contents

The film was very successful at the box office and led to a series of filmed farces. [1] [4]

Synopsis

Rhoda Marley seeks refuge overnight from a tyrannical stepfather in the house of Gerald Popkiss. He is alone there, as his wife is away; fearing a scandal he attempts to conceal Rhoda's presence from nosy domestic staff and his in-laws, with the help of his cousin Clive. Eventually all is explained, Gerald and his wife are reconciled, and Clive pairs off with Rhoda.

Cast

Source: British Film Institute [5]

Cast members marked * were the creators of the roles in the original stage production. [6]

Production

The film was one of a very small number of productions made by Herbert Wilcox's British and Dominions Film Corporation in association with His Master's Voice ("The Gramophone Company", later EMI). [7] The film used the cast of the original stage production. [8] HMV terminated its association with British & Dominions in 1931 out of concern that the company's participation in producing comedy films such as Rookery Nook and Splinters would demean its corporate image, of which it was very protective during the early days of the Great Depression.

Reception

Rookery Nook was voted the best British movie of 1930. [9]

According to one report, it was the most popular British film in Britain over the previous five years. [10]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Wilcox, Herbert (1967). Twenty Five Thousand Sunsets. South Brunswick. p. 88.
  2. 1 2 "English Making Money". Variety. 17 September 1930. p. 57.
  3. Ben Travers. "One Embarrassing Night (1930) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  4. "DIRECTOR-PLAYERS". The West Australian . Vol. L, no. 9, 834. Western Australia. 5 January 1934. p. 3. Retrieved 27 August 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Rookery Nook", British Film Institute, accessed 14 February 2013.
  6. "Aldwych Theatre – Rookery Nook", The Times , 1 July 1926, p. 14.
  7. "SCREEN GOSSIP". Western Mail . Vol. XLIV, no. 2, 273. Western Australia. 5 September 1929. p. 7. Retrieved 27 August 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  8. "MOVING PICTURES". The Australasian . Vol. CXXVIII, no. 4, 246. Victoria, Australia. 24 May 1930. p. 15 (METROPOLITAN EDITION). Retrieved 27 August 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  9. "Sunshine Susie", The Daily News, 19 August 1933, p. 19
  10. "THE MOVIE WORLD". Bowen Independent . Vol. 26, no. 2195. Queensland, Australia. 6 December 1930. p. 7. Retrieved 27 August 2017 via National Library of Australia.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Travers</span> English writer

Ben Travers was an English writer. His output includes more than 20 plays, 30 screenplays, 5 novels, and 3 volumes of memoirs. He is best remembered for his long-running series of farces first staged in the 1920s and 1930s at the Aldwych Theatre. Many of these were made into films and later television productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Walls</span> British actor

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robertson Hare</span> British actor (1891-1979)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Brough</span> English actress (1863–1934)

Mary Bessie Brough was an English actress in theatre, silent films and early talkies, including eleven of the twelve Aldwych farces of the 1920s and early 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Wilcox</span> Film producer and director from Britain

Herbert Sydney Wilcox CBE was a British film producer and director.

William Percy Lipscomb was a British-born Hollywood playwright, screenwriter, producer and director. He died in London in 1958, aged 71.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Lynn</span> English actor (1882-1962)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon James (actor)</span> English actor

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winifred Shotter</span> British actress (1904-1996)

Winifred Florence Shotter was an English actress best known for her appearances in the Aldwych farces of the 1920s and early 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethel Coleridge</span> English actress (1883–1976)

Ethel Coleridge was an English actress, best known for her roles in the original Aldwych farces in the 1920s and 1930s.

Rookery Nook is a 1970 British television production by the BBC.

Rookery Nook was a 1953 British live television production of the comedy play by Ben Travers broadcast on 23 May 1953. Featuring in this version were Peter Cushing, David Stoll, and Lally Bowers.

<i>Rookery Nook</i> (play)

Rookery Nook is a farce by the English playwright Ben Travers based on his own 1923 novel. It was first given at the Aldwych Theatre, London, the third in the series of twelve Aldwych farces presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls at the theatre between 1923 and 1933. Several of the actors formed a regular core cast for the Aldwych farces. The play depicts the complications that ensue when a young woman, dressed in pyjamas, seeks refuge from her bullying stepfather at a country house in the middle of the night.

<i>Turkey Time</i> (1933 film) 1933 film

Turkey Time is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Walls, Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare and Dorothy Hyson. The screenplay concerns a group of guests come to stay with the Stoatt family in the seaside town of Eden Bay for Christmas. They soon become involved with an impoverished concert performer whose innocent presence in the house leads to a series of misunderstandings. It was adapted from the 1931 play Turkey Time by Ben Travers, one of the Aldwych Farces.

<i>Turkey Time</i> (play)

Turkey Time is a farce by Ben Travers. It was one of the series of Aldwych farces that ran nearly continuously at the Aldwych Theatre in London from 1923 to 1933. The story concerns two guests, staying at the Stoatt household for Christmas, who offer shelter to a pretty concert performer left stranded when her employer absconds, leaving his cast unpaid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aldwych farce</span> Series of twelve stage farces presented at the Aldwych Theatre, London

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.

<i>Thark</i> (play) Play written by Ben Travers

Thark is a farce by the English playwright Ben Travers. It was first given at the Aldwych Theatre, London, the fourth in the series of twelve Aldwych farces presented at the theatre by the actor-manager Tom Walls between 1923 and 1933. It starred the same cast members as many of the other Aldwych farces. The story concerns a reputedly haunted English country house. Investigators and frightened occupants of the house spend a tense night searching for the ghost.

<i>A Night Like This</i> (play)

A Night Like This is a farce by Ben Travers, written as one of the series of Aldwych farces staged nearly continuously at the Aldwych Theatre, London, from 1923 to 1933. The farces were directed by Tom Walls, who co-starred in most of them with Ralph Lynn, and a supporting cast of regular Aldwych performers. The play is a spoof of detective plays and thrillers, with the two stars successfully taking on a criminal gang. Eventually, the gang is rounded up, and the jewels taken from the heroine are restored to their proper owner.

Thark is a 1932 British film farce, directed by Tom Walls, with a script by Ben Travers. In addition to Walls, the film stars Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare. The film is a screen adaptation of the original 1927 Aldwych farce play Thark. It was made at British and Dominion's Elstree Studios.

<i>Fifty-Fifty</i> (play)

Fifty-Fifty is a farce by H. F. Maltby, adapted from a French original, Azaïs, by Louis Verneuil and Georges Berr. It was the penultimate work of the series of Aldwych farces that ran nearly continuously at the Aldwych Theatre in London from 1923 to 1933. The play centres on the sudden rise of an impoverished music teacher to become manager of a grand casino.