Old Mother Riley Detective

From The Goon Show Depository

Old Mother Riley Detective
"Old Mother Riley Detective" (1943).jpg
Original trade poster
Directed byLance Comfort
Produced byJohn Baxter
StarringArthur Lucan
Kitty McShane
Hal Gordon
CinematographyJames Wilson
Edited byE.W. White
Music byKennedy Russell
Production
company
Distributed byAnglo-American Film Corporation
Release date
31 May 1943 (UK)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Old Mother Riley Detective is a 1943 British comedy film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane and Hal Gordon.[1] It was part of the long running Old Mother Riley series. Old Mother Riley investigates the disappearance of food during the war, a serious crime because of rationing.

Plot

The film opens with a night watchman being bludgeoned, as a safe is cracked open in the offices of the District Food Controller. A list of wartime foods to be rationed is stolen, and the police fear gangsters are planning to sell the foods on the black market. As the office charwoman, Old Mother Riley's fingerprints are all over the safe, and she becomes the police's number one suspect. To prove her innocence, Mother Riley turns detective, adopting various methods and disguises to track down the villains.[2][3]

Cast

Critical reception

TV Guide wrote of the film, "a lifeless effort...The gangster premise is merely an excuse for Lucan to try out some humorous bits (in drag, of course), but the picture is too padded to hold much interest."[4] Kinematograph Weekly noted, "one of Arthur Lucan's and the series' best efforts."[5]

References

  1. ^ "Old Mother Riley, Detective". Archived from the original on 10 February 2013. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Old Mother Riley, Detective | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2012-07-12. Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  3. ^ "Old Mother Riley-Detective (1943) | Vintage45's Blog". Vintage45.wordpress.com. 2011-10-13. Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  4. ^ "Old Mother Riley, Detective Review". Movies.tvguide.com. Retrieved 2014-02-22.
  5. ^ McFarlane, Brian (1999). Lance Comfort - Brian McFarlane - Google Books. ISBN 9780719054846. Retrieved 2014-02-22.

External links