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This was just shown on Turner Classic Movies, the first time its been shown on television in the US. It was made by Teddington Studios, the British studio then under the control of Warner Brothers. It was a "quota quickie", a film made under the British Cinematograph Films Act of 1927- created to counter the dominance of American films in Britain.

The film is a simple (if properly restrained British) love story. It begins as an unemployed car salesman, Peter Middleton, who has lost the last of his money in cards, takes a street orphan under his wing and pretending the orphan is his son, persuades a softhearted landlady to rent him a room, although he has no money.

The next day, while trying to con the chauffeur of a fancy motorcar, he meets the rich young Cynthia Hatch. However, intrigued by his audacity, she hides her identity from him when he mistakes her for a working girl and to impress her, he pretends that the car is his. And so, in the best scene in the movie, she convinces him to take her to a fancy restaurant that he, of course, he can't pay for. There she puts him up to going to the powerful Mr. Hatch (her father, still unknown to him) to pitch a scheme for petrol (gas) stations. He promises that he will make good and then hire her as his secretary.

However, her scheme backfires when her father rejects him and he goes to work for the competition. He holds her to her promise, and she finds herself working for her father's chief competitor.

Its all wrapped up neatly in a little more than an hour as the young entrepreneur gets the best of his future father-in-law and wins the girl. As the girl, Nancy O'Neil is quite good and Ian Hunter is good, if a little stiff, as the lead. After this film, he went to Hollywood, where he may be best known for playing King Richard in "The Adventures of Robin Hood".

It was directed by Michael Powell, who went on to make "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes", among other classics.

I call this a relic not because it is old. Oh no: Old movies are my thing. Nor because it has been essentially unknown in the United States until now, though that is interesting.

It's because the mores have changed distinctly in 73 years. This relates to the little boy we first see in the film. He is a street orphan and is touchingly written, acted -- and directed, though what else would one expect from the great Michael Powell? Ian Hunter, quite charming as a loafer from a higher class, finds him on the street. He is down on his luck too; so he takes the boy under his wing. The first thing that would not pass muster with censors and/or would upset some viewers today is that he rents a room and has this child share it with him. Oh my! What a scandal that would create! And in addition, he makes pajamas for the child from the softhearted landlady's rug.

Then, when things look up, he seems to have hired the child to work for the car company where he's wangled a job. (The film is primarily about his romance with the daughter of an auto magnate and his change in fortune.) The boy wears a uniform, no less! Child labor laws would make such employment for a little boy unacceptable.

The acting is excellent throughout. The young woman, the boy, the landlady -- all are good. And Hunter shows himself a much more interesting actor than his roles in Kay Francis vehicles a few years hence would have suggested.

It's always interesting to experience the work of an artist before he really comes into his own, and so this little gem from director Michael Powell is a welcome addition to our knowledge of the man's genius. He has a boldness of vision, a sureness of hand, and an audacity far ahead of its time. Particularly telling are the way he cuts from one thread of the story to another. Not a single scene is one frame too long. Notice how, at the end, the scene of the butler closing the door as he just begins his knowing smile is suddenly interrupted by the final scene of the boy on the phone. A director with less moxie might be inclined to hold that butler scene a little longer so the audience can get all warm and sentimental, but not Powell. He knows he's got us where he wants us, and it's time to move on. A better story (hey, where'd that nice landlady go?) and a bit better acting (by which I mean, less American style acting) could possibly have garnered a few more stars, but it isn't important for a "quota quickie." I enjoyed it simply for what it was -- a lark.

Ian Hunter stars in this British quota quickie, Something Always Happens from 1934, directed by none other than Michael Powell.

Hunter is Peter Middleton, a man down on his luck. He meets a street urchin (John Singer), and together they finagle room and board with a kindly landlady (Muriel George).

Looking to procure a foreign car for a millionaire, he meets a young woman, Cynthia (Nancy O'Neil) whom he assumes is also broke. In fact, her father owns a fleet of gas stations. When she learns he needs a job, she sends Peter to him without revealing her identity.

Cynthia's rather, Hatch, throws him out, but Peter gets the man's rival to agree to his money-making idea. Soon he's on top. He and Hatch are now rivals.

Very charming and entertaining British film.

Ian Hunter is broke, and that's how he likes it. He befriends young John Singer, they charm landlady Muriel George, and Hunter has a meet cute with Nancy O'Neil. Hunter has a big idea to make petrol stations busier. Miss O'Neil suggests he take it to Peter Gawthorne. Gawthorne throws him out of his office, so Hunter takes it to the failing competition. He also takes Miss Neil into the office as his private secretary. He doesn't know she's Gawthorne's daughter.

Michael Powell's movie for Warner's Teddington branch bumps along at a good pace, with people speaking fast, things happening, and so forth. Yet the art deco look and lack of urgency about the characters' problems makes it feel a lot like the lesser stuff that RKO would be turning out in a year. I am struck by the idea that this is more a burlesque of the urban romcom than an example of the form itself, Matters fall into place far too quickly, then it's on to the next plot point. As facilely and pleasantly as it's directed, it feels insincere, as if everyone said "let's make this movie, and maybe the next one will be more interesting." And then everyone put in a full day's work, and did their best, and then just forgot about it when they came in to work the day after. But I feel that way about a lot of the lesser RKO romcoms too.

Michael Powell returns to comedy with a combination of his visionary main character with the lighter tone of something like Hotel Splendide, and he does it to results that don't quite come together. It's amusing pretty consistently, but Something Always Happens has plot elements that make no sense, a heavy reliance on coincidence, and a child character who doesn't really add much of anything. The movie is never dull or outright bad, but the screenplay really needed another pass to get everything to work together like it should.

Peter Middleton (Ian Hunter) is a hustler salesman who loses his last twenty-five pounds in a game of cards and cheerfully goes out to make another small fortune to burn through. He meets Billy (John Singer), an urchin on the streets who we get introduced to at the same time as Peter in intercutting moments that draws parallels between them. It's an effective opening that brings them together and joins them at the hip, and then...the kid doesn't really matter that much anymore. He largely gets left at the boarding house Peter gets them into, run by the softy Mrs. Badger (Muriel George) who keeps letting them stay and eat despite Peter's inability to pay.

Peter gets word on a car wanted by a foreign millionaire and finds one on the street, which happens to be owned by Cynthia Hatch (Nancy O'Neil). In a bit of masquerade (I'm still seeing Lubitsch everywhere when it comes to 30s comedies, so this feels like a Lubitsch influence), he pretends to own the car, she pretends to be a working girl, and they have dinner on him, without a penny, in an expensive restaurant. It's here where she gives him the idea to approach Ben Hatch (Peter Gawthorne), her father, a fact he doesn't know, with an idea for his petrol stations.

It's all kinds of busy to get Peter to the point where he ends up working for Hatch's rival, but at least its comic in nature, providing light entertainment as it lugubriously moves along with its plot, eventually getting us to the point where Peter is on the rise (Mrs. Badger unfortunately but understandably just disappears from the film), attacking Hatch's revenues head-on, while Cynthia works incognito as his secretary.

One of the amusing things about movies like this, movies where someone has a great, new idea, is that the ideas themselves almost always come off as kind of ridiculous (think of the suspended tarmac in The Palm Beach Story), and Peter's idea here feels so innocently naïve. The idea is to make petrol stations small resorts, complete with swimming pools, where people will decide to stop for long stretches to enjoy themselves while on a drive. You know, instead of the quick service place that we all know and...tolerate on the road 90 years later. It's not really a critique of the film, just an observation that visionaries in films tend to look mostly kind of silly years after when their ideas have become obviously wrong-headed.

Anyway, it works, Peter ends up on top. There's a battle for some new sites along a proposed bypass, Hatch does something that makes literally no sense that gives Peter complete control victory over everything, a step too far in plotting to give Peter the kind of ending that probably isn't that necessary. There's the victory of business, and then there's the victory of the heart. Powell chooses to highlight the victory of business while leaving the victory of the heart as something of a coda. This isn't exactly Rocky.

So, it's fine. The kid feels extraneous, though he does help give the opening a nice feel. It's mostly that he's just wasted, not used in Peter's grand scheme. The romance is probably the best part of it, using masquerade to bring them together, each person pretending to be someone else, and the romance developing rather naturally. The business side is alternatively silly, earnestly presented, just goes too far in giving Peter total victory. There's amusing action in the restaurant, especially around how Peter gets out of paying bills, but it feels like it's missing one more repetition to give it that special Lubitsch Touch.

For a quota quickie, this time produced by Warner Bros.' international division, it's a light entertainment that gets a few smiles as it goes. It's never going down as a forgotten Powell gem, but it was fine while it was on.

This is a truly delightful early Michael Powell film, crisply directed and edited, with excellent cinematography, and it is extraordinary that an early British film of such quality is so little known. There is a striking performance by child actor John Singer, aged 11, as a runaway orphan who is taken up by Ian Hunter, a gent down on his luck and penniless because of his compulsive gambling. The two move in together (no, paedophilia did not yet exist!) and together charm and wheedle their way to a landlady's heart (played with alternate fierceness and charm by Muriel George), so that they get the room for free until their ship comes in, plus huge breakfasts because she loves children. Ian Hunter is excellent as the lead, and one forgives him instantly for his foibles because he is no nice. Meanwhile he meets Nancy O'Neill, who is excellent with her tongue-in-cheek masquerade as a poor girl, whereas she is really the daughter of a business magnate. She urges Hunter to apply to her father for a job, not revealing who she is, but Hunter ends up becoming the competition. If only business success were that easy! But oh well, this is the movies. Peter Gawthorne is amusing as the intimidating papa, exasperated one moment and melting the next. Needless to say, this is one of those films where everything goes well and hardships are overcome, though there is a bizarre shift in plot emphasis from the boy to the girl, and it does seem as if two stories were stuck together rather unconvincingly. But never mind, it is all a delight and so well done that we just enjoy every minute of it.

Ian hunter is ambitious but broke pete middleton. He comes up with a brainstorm to turn ordinary gas stations into something more. But when he presents it to the owner of a chain of stations, they reject it without even hearing the idea. So he takes it to the competition. And now the two companies are battling it out to get the upper hand. Lots of scheming and business decisions, which are all complicated by the fact that middleton's secretary happens to be the competitor's daughter. It's okay. A british story, told in a straight-forward manner. Nothing too new or exciting. Directed by michael powell, years before his partnership with pressburger. There was also a silent film by the same title in 1928, but it doesn't appear to be the same story.

What an absolutely delightful find! According to Robert Osborne of TCM, these "quota quickies" were made by Warner Brothers at their Teddington Studios in England in order to comply with a British law requiring that a certain percentage of films shown there be domestic products. It's the story of an upper-class, but broke, ne'er-do-well (Ian Hunter) who hooks up with a street urchin (John Singer). The chemistry between the two is marvelous, and they are supported by a fine cast, including Nancy O'Neil as the love interest, Peter Gawthorne as her father and Muriel George as the landlady. The film is fast-paced and replete with snappy dialog. It's charming, funny and touching.

The blandly Micawberesque title of this Powell without Pressburger offering should clue you in to the quality of this pleasant if relentlessly un-hilarious rom com, mixed in with "The Kid". It's ok while you're watching it but once you're finished you are taken aback by how few laughs or comically memorable scenes it had. The stuff with perennially broke ne'r do well Peter Middleton and the homeless waif is warmed over Chaplin, at best, while the parts with Middleton and filling station heiress Cynthia is an excercise in Meeting Way Too Cute and features a notable dearth of sexual chemistry between Ian Hunter and Nancy O'Neil. The only parts I liked were the ones with Muriel George's kindly but eternally exasperated landlady whose relationship with Middleton is much more comically appealing than Cynthia's. C plus.

Unemployed car salesman Peter Middleton (Ian Hunter) takes care of poor street urchin Billy. Kindly landlady Mrs. Badger rents them a room despite their obvious poverty. Peter encounters Cynthia Hatch (Nancy O'Neil) over her car although he pretends that it's his. She's rich pretending to be poor and he's poor pretending to be rich.

This British rom-com starts cute with the pairing. I like that he's faking and she knows that he's faking. It's absolutely adorable. The premise is good setup for some screwball comedy although I don't think Ian Hunter is the type. This is a good one for a remake.

I was just about floored with this wonderful movie! Utterly charming and engaging cast...starting with that little mudlark that really sparks the entire show, Johnny Singer. He reminds me of a combination of that wonderful English actor in "The Mudlark" and the Italian actor in Katherine Hepburn's "Summertime".

I must say that even though the plot is familiar, something that rings fresh and true really captivated me about this movie. Ian Hunter and Nancy O'Neil were just perfect, in my opinion. And the funny parts were simply delightful.

TCM must simply show more of these wonderful movies! Thank you, Robert Osborne and TCM!

Without going into plot summaries I will stick to three main points: 1) I agree with all the nice things said by the other reviewers. If this is a "quota quickie" then bring on more! 2) You will not find another film where you get a peek under the bonnet of a 1934 Bentley, and with sound. 3) The best reason to watch this is Miss Nancy O'Neil. A total delight, wish she had made more films. At first I pondered about why the Brothers Warner did not bring her to Hollywood for a better career. But hey, the U.S.of A. had already "borrowed" Lilian Bond, Wendy Barrie, Margot Grahame, Benita Hume, Binnie Barnes, Diana Wynyard, Edna Best, Madeleine Carroll, Valerie Hobson, Elizabeth Allan, and others. Tough competition and perhaps Miss Nancy did not need the drama.

"Something Always Happens" is a British quota film. Let me explain what this means. The British government adopted a law long ago (1930s if I remember correctly) and it said that a certain percentage of films playing in their cinemas MUST be domestically made. So, to get around this, several big American studios (in this case, Warner Brothers) opened up British studios and made films to meet this quota. And, fortunately, they lined up the great British director Michael Powell to made the film...though at the time he was just a young and struggling guy in the movie industry.

Peter Middleton (Ian Hunter) is broke when the story begins...broke and without a job. Despite this, he soon finds himself with a little boy...a boy who is homeless and hungry. With no funds at all, he manages to find a softhearted landlord who lets the pair stay....but what is he going to do for money and food? Well, he's not that worried, as his life motto is 'Something always happens'...and he assumes with some hard work, they will be just fine. Of course, this IS during the worst period of the Great Depression! Fortunately for him, he finds the right person to help him out of this mess when he meets Cynthia.

This is a cute rags to riches tale and I really have nothing negative to say about it. Clever, fun and a film I highly recommend.

Wonderful writing is what makes this comedy something special. This is just great storytelling. The film is charming and it offers a slate of characters that are very likable.

Ian Hunter plays the part of Peter Middleton, an optimist who is suffering in the challenging economy, but always believes he will find a way to survive to the next day. He runs into a poor runaway named Billy (John Singer), and takes the kid under his wing. Now more motivated to find economic stability for the two of them, he sets off to ply his talents as a deal-maker. A misunderstanding results in an opportunity for Peter. And he meets Cynthia Hatch (Nancy O'Neil) with whom there is instant chemistry.

Watch for Muriel George who plays the part of Mrs. Badger; she is delightful as the landlady with a tender heart.

I would love for someone to remake this film and flesh it out a little, with modern references.