Tons of Money is a farce by the British writers Will Evans and Arthur Valentine. It was co-produced by Tom Walls and Leslie Henson. In the story of the play, a hard-up inventor pretends to be his cousin, in order to escape the clutches of his creditors.
The play was produced by Tom Walls and Leslie Henson. [1] It was first given at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London, on 13 April 1922, directed by E. Holman Clark. [2]
It ran for 737 performances, at the Shaftesbury and the Aldwych. [3] It was at the time only the fourth non-musical show to surpass 700 performances in a West End run. [4] [n 1]
Aubrey Allington is a hopelessly impractical inventor who is deep in debt. When he inherits a large sum from a relation in Mexico he stands to see none of it because his creditors would claim it all. His resourceful wife comes up with a solution: the cousin to whom the legacy reverts on Aubrey's death is believed to be dead. Aubrey's supposed death in an explosion in his laboratory enables him to come to life again masquerading as the cousin from Mexico, able to collect the full legacy. He reappears in sombrero and extravagantly Mexican guise. Unfortunately for the conspirators, the cousin's long-estranged wife claims Aubrey as her own, and a further fake suicide – this time by drowning – ensues so that Aubrey can escape her. Meanwhile Sprules, the family butler, has got wind of the plot, and seeks to cash in by arranging for his brother to impersonate the Mexican cousin. The impostor's arrival necessitates a further reincarnation of Aubrey, this time as the new curate of a nearby parish. He tries to come to an agreement with the pretended Mexican, but they are interrupted by the arrival of the very-much-alive real cousin. In the end it turns out that there is no legacy to be had: the money has been annexed by the Mexican Revolutionary Committee. [5]
Alan Ayckbourn updated and directed the play in 1986 in a revival by the National Theatre starring Polly Adams and Simon Cadell, with Michael Gambon as Sprules. [6]
The play was adapted for the cinema on three occasions. A 1924 silent film Tons of Money was directed by Frank Hall Crane and starred Leslie Henson. [7] A 1930 sound version Tons of Money directed by Tom Walls starred many of the Aldwych regulars. In 1934 a French film I Have an Idea was released, starring Raimu and Simone Deguyse. [8] The BBC has broadcast two adaptations of the play for television. In 1947 Winifred Shotter and Desmond Walter-Ellis starred as the Allingtons. Eleanor Summerfield and Frankie Howerd were the leads in a 1954 television version. [9]
Tons of Money was adapted into a musical in Australia in 1924 by Vaiben Louis and Willy Redstone and the producer Hugh J. Ward. [10]
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.
Germaine Yvonne Arnaud was a French-born pianist, singer and actress, who was well known for her career in Britain, as well as her native land. After beginning a career as a concert pianist as a child, Arnaud acted in musical comedies. She switched to non-musical comedy and drama around 1920 and was one of the players in the second of the Aldwych farces, A Cuckoo in the Nest, a hit in 1925. She also had dramatic roles and made films in the 1930s and 1940s, and continued to act into the 1950s. She occasionally performed as a pianist later in her career. The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre was named in her memory in Guildford, Surrey.
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels.
Leslie Lincoln Henson was an English comedian, actor, producer for films and theatre, and film director. He initially worked in silent films and Edwardian musical comedy and became a popular music hall comedian who enjoyed a long stage career. He was famous for his bulging eyes, malleable face and raspy voice and helped to form the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) during the Second World War.
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.
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.
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.
Tons of Money is a 1930 British comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Ralph Lynn, Yvonne Arnaud, Mary Brough, Robertson Hare and Gordon James, the same artistes responsible for the Aldwych farces. It was a remake of the 1924 film Tons of Money which had been based on the 1922 play Tons of Money by Will Evans and Arthur Valentine. It was made at British and Dominion's Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director Lawrence P. Williams.
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.
Winifred Florence Shotter was an English actress best known for her appearances in the Aldwych farces of the 1920s and early 1930s.
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.
Tons of Money is a 1924 British silent comedy film directed by Frank Hall Crane and starring Leslie Henson, Flora le Breton and Mary Brough. It is an adaptation of the 1922 play Tons of Money by Will Evans and Arthur Valentine. Both were co-produced with Tom Walls. It was remade as a sound film Tons of Money in 1930.
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.
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.
A Cuckoo in the Nest is a farce by the English playwright Ben Travers. It was first given at the Aldwych Theatre, London, the second in the series of twelve Aldwych farces presented by the actor-manager Tom Walls at the theatre between 1923 and 1933. Several of the cast formed the regular core cast for the later Aldwych farces. The plot concerns two friends, a man and a woman, who are each married to other people. While travelling together, they are obliged by circumstances to share a hotel bedroom. Everyone else assumes the worst, but the two travellers are able to prove their innocence.
It Pays to Advertise is a farce by Roi Cooper Megrue and Walter Hackett. Described as "A Farcical Fact in Three Acts", the play depicts the idle son of a rich manufacturer setting up a spurious business in competition with his father.
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.
A Night Like This is a 1932 comedy film directed by Tom Walls and starring Walls, Ralph Lynn and Winifred Shotter. Ben Travers wrote the screenplay, adapting his own play, the original 1930 Aldwych farce of the same title.
I Have an Idea is a 1934 French comedy film directed by Roger Richebé and starring Raimu, Simone Deguyse and Félix Oudart. It is an adaptation of the 1922 West End farce Tons of Money by Will Evans and Arthur Valentine. The film's sets were designed by the art director Guy de Gastyne.