Stormy Weather

Very much the Carry On films of the 1930s complete with enough double entendres to make Barbara Windsor blush. This isn't quite the best of the Aldwych farces but if you like a proper old style comedy or are just interested to see what made people laugh between the wars, you'll enjoy this.

We are conditioned to enjoy the familiar. Consequently a lot of us love classic 1930s comedy such as Laurel and Hardy, Will Hay and Marx Brothers This slightly more obscure and forgotten style of comedy takes a little while to get into but these professionally made, tried and tested pictures from "The Aldwych Gang" - which are funny - endear themselves quickly to us.

Tom Walls, the leader of the group and director of the films was immensely popular in the thirties but I am not sure he comes across as a likeable person. It might be just his screen persona but these days he seems a little arrogant and unpleasant. As someone doing a 1930s Sid James, some degree of likeability feels necessary. It's difficult to root for someone you don't like.

I've mentioned that these were the Carry On films of the day and that Tom Walls was their version of Sid James. There are two other similar roles: Ralph Lynn, the silly toff makes a fabulous Kenneth Williams and Yvonne Arnaud, the sex starved matron is Joan Sims. Then there's the hilarious Robertson Hare is....well he's just unique - my new comedy hero!

So if you fancy a silly story with people chasing along corridors running into the wrong bedrooms, losing their trousers and hiding strange women under their beds, give this a go.

Tom Walls has just taken over as Chairman of a chain store and is inspecting the branches. He is prepared to promote the dull but efficient Robertson Hare and fire the incompetent Ralph Lynn. He orders them both to London, where his wife, Yvonne Arnaud, has just discovered that her first husband, Andrews Englemann, whom she thought dead, is alive, has kidnapped her to a Chinese laundry and is about to blackmail Mr. Walls.

It's a prime example of Aldwych farce transferred to the screen with expert opening up and lots of racy and insulting lines written by Ben Travers and delivered by the stage veterans who spoke them on the boards. I cannot but help think that there was a good deal more racy behavior on stage than in this screen adaptation, the censors being tougher on screen than within the proscenium arch. However, there's plenty to delight in the delivery of this farceurs: Walls' smug delivery, Lynn's frantic incompetence, Hare uncomprehending dullard and Arnaud's French double-entendre double-takes.... and to offend any modern fifth-wave feminist audience.

Director/star Tom Walls and the justly famous Aldwych farceur Ben Travers have most successfully brought off an extremely difficult and ingeniously clever balancing trick with Stormy Weather in which farce and drama are masterfully combined so that neither element undermines but rather re-inforces the effectiveness of the other. So far as the Travers' screenplay is concerned, this brilliant feat is accomplished not only by judicious writing and inspired cross-cutting but by creatively definitive and vigorously drawn characterizations. Admirably, Travers has also seized upon the freedom offered by the screen to make full use of frequent changes of scene and has invested his script with plenty of opportunities for moodily magnificent production values.

As for the direction, Walls has not only induced his players to give of their best (as we would have every reason to anticipate), but unexpectedly reveals himself to be a real craftsman with atmosphere (in which of course he is aided by Philip Tannura's misty lighting, Vetchinsky's eye-catching sets and Roome's pacey film editing).

Most admirably, Walls has persuaded Ralph Lynn to tone down his usual silly ass shenanigans. He's even funnier here and much more sympathetic with his child-like comebacks and inherent faith in his own disabilities. And I loved his sense of justice (or rather injustice) which he so strenuously pursues despite multiple dissuasions.

Poor old Robertson Hare, of course, is once again lumbered as the aggressively self-promoting fall-guy of the piece, but superbly manages to make his Bullock both humorous and humorless. Yvonne Arnaud is also as tizzy as ever, but this time she is given some genuinely funny lines and hilarious bits of business.

In the support cast, a special accolade must be awarded to the languidly exotic Stella Moya (here making the first of only four movie appearances), who contributes a truly charismatic study of an ill-used Chinese lass. Gordon James and Engelmann's other henchmen are likewise exotically colorful. And along with Stella Moya and company, we must not forget the lovely Veronica Rose who enlivens a couple of scenes with Tom Walls. Which brings us to Mr Walls himself. Walls invests his own impersonation with a delightfully off-handed cynical wit. Despite the character's inherent lack of charm, Walls manages the remarkable feat of making this self-centered, self-important little Caesar not only screamingly funny but even warm and companionable.

This film is wonderful. Wacky, politically incorrect and more risque than you might expect from a movie from this era.

Tom Walls who plays Sir Duncan Craggs and also directed is a comic genius. Don't miss it.

"Stormy Weather" is the story of a British couple who are happy...though not together. Mrs. Craggs is an annoying and dopey woman who cheats on her husband with a variety of men. While you would think this would be a serious problem, Sir Duncan Craggs doesn't mind at all, as it gives him the excuse to have his own affairs...and with women who aren't so annoying nor vacuous.

When Sir Duncan is appointed to the board of directors of a department store chain, he takes the job seriously and works to make it more efficient. Through one of his on site visits, he makes the acquaintance of two managers...one efficient and a weasel and the other inefficient and also a weasel. Somehow all three men as well as Mrs. Craggs all get pulled into a weird adventure in Chinatown....how and what's in store for them is something you'll have to see for yourself.

This is a cute comedy of manners...and well worth seeing. I nearly scored this one an 8 and think it's well written and clever. The only problems with the film depend on how politically correct and how easily offended you are. As a retired history teacher, such things didn't surprise me and I don't think you can apply today's standards to films...otherwise you'll never watch much of anything. But there are a couple offensive racial/ethnic slurs in the film...so hold on tight as you watch!