Time Flies | |
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![]() Opening title | |
Directed by | Walter Forde |
Screenplay by | J.O.C. Orton Ted Kavanagh Howard Irving Young |
Produced by | Edward Black |
Starring | Tommy Handley Evelyn Dall George Moon |
Cinematography | Basil Emmott |
Edited by | R. E. Dearing |
Music by | Bretton Byrd |
Production company | |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors (UK) |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Time Flies is a 1944 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Handley, Evelyn Dall, Felix Aylmer and Moore Marriott. [1] The screenplay concerns two music hall performers, an inventor and a con-man who travel back to Elizabethan times using a time machine. [2]
A professor invents a time sphere which takes a group of 1940s entertainers to Elizabethan London, where they encounter Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh and introduce them to jazz culture.
They also meet Captain John Smith and a very heavy-drinking Pocahontas. The main female character meets William Shakespeare and feeds him some of his own lines, which he eagerly writes down.
A costume-production, (many of which are immaculate), which makes extensive use of the Gainsborough wardrobe.
Sky Cinema gave the film two out of five stars, its review stating: "Despite the subject and the cast, the treatment lacks vivacity". [3] TV Guide rated it similarly: "A well-tuned script takes full advantages of the possibilities for comedy, but radio star Handley is a bit of a disappointment, looking sourly out of place on the screen"; [4] The Radio Times rated it three out of five stars, concluding: "Some of the jokes have travelled less well and it falls flat in places, but it's a thoroughly entertaining romp". [5]
Sir Walter Raleigh, also spelled Ralegh, was an English statesman, soldier, writer, explorer, and a favourite courtier of the English Queen Elizabeth I. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellion in Ireland, helped defend England against the Spanish Armada and held political positions under Elizabeth I.
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599. In 1601, he led an abortive coup d'état against the government of Elizabeth I and was executed for treason.
Blackadder II is the second series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 9 January 1986 to 20 February 1986. The series is set in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), and sees the principal character, Edmund, Lord Blackadder, as a Tudor courtier attempting to win the favour of the Queen while avoiding execution by decapitation, a fate that befell many of her suitors.
William Thomson Hay was an English comedian who wrote and acted in a schoolmaster sketch that later transferred to the screen, where he also played other authority figures with comic failings. His film Oh, Mr. Porter! (1937), made by Gainsborough Pictures, is often cited as the supreme British-produced film-comedy, and in 1938 he was the third highest-grossing star in the UK. Many comedians have acknowledged him as a major influence. Hay was also a keen amateur astronomer.
Thomas Reginald Handley was an English comedian, best known for the BBC radio programme It's That Man Again ("ITMA") which ran between 1939 and 1949.
Westward Ho! is an 1855 historical novel written by British author Charles Kingsley. The novel was based on the experiences of Elizabethan privateer Amyas Preston, who sets sail with Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and other privateers to the New World, namely the Preston Somers Expedition and Raleigh's El Dorado Expedition where they battle with the Spanish.
Elizabethan literature refers to bodies of work produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603), and is one of the most splendid ages of English literature. In addition to drama and the theatre, it saw a flowering of poetry, with new forms like the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, and dramatic blank verse, as well as prose, including historical chronicles, pamphlets, and the first English novels. Major writers include William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, Richard Hooker, Ben Jonson, Philip Sidney and Thomas Kyd.
Muriel Clara Bradbrook (1909–1993), usually cited as M. C. Bradbrook, was a British literary scholar and authority on Shakespeare. She was Professor of English at Cambridge University, and Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge.
Gasbags is a 1941 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and Marcel Varnel and starring The Crazy Gang as well as Moore Marriott. The film was a morale-booster in the early part of the Second World War.
Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt is a 1940 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde, starring Arthur Askey and Richard Murdoch as Oxford 'scholars'.
Evelyn Dall was an American singer and actress.
Elizabeth I of England has inspired artistic and cultural works for over four centuries. The following lists cover various media, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture, film and fiction. The entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalogue.
I Thank You is a 1941 black and white British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott. It was produced by Edward Black at Gainsborough Pictures.
Walter Forde was a British actor, screenwriter and director. Born in Lambeth, south London in 1898, he directed over fifty films between 1919 from the silent era through to 1949 in the sound era. He died in Los Angeles, California in 1984.
Saloon Bar is a 1940 British thriller film directed by Walter Forde and starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns. It was made by Ealing Studios and its style has led to comparisons with the later Ealing Comedies, unlike other wartime Ealing films which are different in tone. The action takes place over one evening in the saloon bar of a London pub, just before Christmas. The regulars discuss the forthcoming execution for robbery and murder of the boyfriend of one of the barmaids. A pound note from the robbery is found in the till. Convinced of the condemned man's innocence they trace how the note came to be there and manage to unmask the true killer.
It's That Man Again is a 1943 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Handley, Greta Gynt and Jack Train. It was based on Handley's radio show It's That Man Again. In the film, the mayor of a small town lends his assistance to some drama students.
Sailors Three is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Trinder, Claude Hulbert and Carla Lehmann. This was cockney music hall comedian Trinder's debut for Ealing, the studio with which he was to become most closely associated. It concerns three British sailors who accidentally find themselves aboard a German ship during the Second World War.
Hi Gang! is a 1941 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon and Vic Oliver.
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English gentleman, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer, well known for popularising tobacco in England.
Elizabeth the Queen was a 1930 Broadway three-act play written in blank verse by Maxwell Anderson, produced by the Theatre Guild, directed by Philip Moeller and with scenic and costume design by Lee Simonson. It ran for 147 performances from November 3, 1930, to March 1931 at the Guild Theatre. The starring roles were played by Lynn Fontanne as Elizabeth and Alfred Lunt as Lord Essex.