Time Flies (1944 film)

Time Flies
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	Gainsborough Pictures
Distributed by	General Film Distributors (UK)
Release date	8 May 1944 (1944-05-08) (UK)
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. The screenplay concerns two music hall performers, an inventor and a con-man who travel back to Elizabethan times using a time machine.

Plot

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.

Cast

• Tommy Handley – Tommy
• Evelyn Dall – Susie Barton
• George Moon – Bill Barton
• Felix Aylmer – The Professor
• Moore Marriott – A Soothsayer
• Graham Moffatt – His Nephew
• John Salew – William Shakespeare
• Leslie Bradley – Captain Walter Raleigh
• Olga Lindo – Queen Elizabeth
• Roy Emerton – Captain John Smith
• Iris Lang – Princess Pocahontas
• Stéphane Grappelli – A Troubadour

Critical reception

Sky Cinema gave the film two out of five stars, its review stating: "Despite the subject and the cast, the treatment lacks vivacity". 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"; 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".

External links

• Time Flies at IMDb