This film is currently available view at the BFI Mediatheque as part of their British Cinema of the 1930s season.Ignore the marks that people have given it on this site.It is a stylish witty comedy with fine performances from all of the cast but in particular Seymour Hicks and Martita Hunt.The story is hardly new.A young aristocrat is being forced into a loveless marriage with a wealthy brewers daughter.he flees to a music hall where the Human cannonball(Anna Lee)is fired out of a cannon literally into his lap.Initially they are at each others throats but of course hate turns to love.They decide to go off to Paris to break up his engagement with somewhat unexpected consequences.This really is a delightful film which deserves to have some decent reputation.Hopefully its current availability will allow this.
3 Reviews
Trouble Brewing
writers_reign30 December 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Like the previous poster I too watched this in the Mediatheque inside the National Film Theatre. I have found from experience that the section entitled Welcome To The Dream Palace deals exclusively with films produced during the 1930s. I had never heard of this title and when I noted it was set in 1870 I had little hopes for it but I was pleasantly surprised, not, of course, by the plot, which was probably first set down on the wall of a cave, but for the faint air of charm that clings to it like Sandalwood and especially for Martita Hunt's nice line in put-downs. Nice, too, to see Meriel Forbes in a rare outing as well as Seymour Hicks, who, for many, many years, has just been a name to me. Recommended.
Lila Quartermain gets shot out of a cannon!
mark.waltz7 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
One of John Ford's favorite actresses, Anna Lee is best known to movie audiences for her roles into Academy award-winning best films, "How Green was my Valley" and "The Sound of Music", as well as playing the overly friendly neighbor in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane". The same year she came to Hollywood to appear on position Ronald Colman in "My Life With Caroline", she starred in this Ealing comedy as a music hall performer who against her will is shot out way too high from a cannon and falling into the arms of aristocrat Griffith Jones. Dealing with an unwanted engagement, Jones uses his encounter with Lee to escape from the clutches of his domineering mother, duchess Martita Hunt. He certainly doesn't want to be as henpecked as his father, Seymour Hicks.
If there ever was evidence that Hunt would have been a perfect Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest", it's her hysterical performance in this delightful Cinderella story. She's rude and imperious, and when Lee in fury flicks her nose at her to call her a snob, it's a delightful takedown that even Hunt can't come up with a retort to. Hicks, like I've never seen him before, is absolutely delightful, playing the type of role that Edmund Gwenn excelled in. Jones is rather bland for the most part, but somebody in this film had to underplay.
Lee shows off an incredible figure in her music hall costume, and in looking at the 90 something year old Lee in her last days on "General Hospital" (after a 25 year run), you can definitely see the lovely young girl she is here. But every time Hunt comes on screen, everybody else disappears. She's equivalent of Edna May Oliver in "Pride and Prejudice" and Maggie Smith on "Downton Abbey", as well as Edith Evans in "Earnest", with increased imperiousness. No Miss Havisham here. Another delightful surprise from the best year of world cinema.
If there ever was evidence that Hunt would have been a perfect Lady Bracknell in "The Importance of Being Earnest", it's her hysterical performance in this delightful Cinderella story. She's rude and imperious, and when Lee in fury flicks her nose at her to call her a snob, it's a delightful takedown that even Hunt can't come up with a retort to. Hicks, like I've never seen him before, is absolutely delightful, playing the type of role that Edmund Gwenn excelled in. Jones is rather bland for the most part, but somebody in this film had to underplay.
Lee shows off an incredible figure in her music hall costume, and in looking at the 90 something year old Lee in her last days on "General Hospital" (after a 25 year run), you can definitely see the lovely young girl she is here. But every time Hunt comes on screen, everybody else disappears. She's equivalent of Edna May Oliver in "Pride and Prejudice" and Maggie Smith on "Downton Abbey", as well as Edith Evans in "Earnest", with increased imperiousness. No Miss Havisham here. Another delightful surprise from the best year of world cinema.
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