Turkey Time

This one of the many Aldwych farces filmed in the 1930s.Tom Walls as ever plays the roguish man about town.Ralph Lynn plays the silly ass.Robertson Hare plays ,as nearly always the hen pecked husband.Married to the formidable Norma Varden.With the passing of time the performances of Walls and Lynn have lost much of their humour.However Hare stands out as funny as ever.Little surprise that he was still performing on TV nearly 40 years later whilst the other two were long forgotten.The farce,written by Ben Travers,is not exactly hilarious,at least by modern day standards.However it is fairly brief and that certainly is a virtue.

With sexual harassment scandals currently convulsing Hollywood and Westminster, this cheerfully amoral farce originally performed on stage in 1931 serves as a timely reminder that men have always exploited financially vulnerable women (as the villain of this piece does the heroine), and most of the male characters are depicted as possessing roving eyes and wandering hands (even Norma Varden gets smacked on the backside by Ralph Lynn). Other antisocial behaviour served up for our entertainment is a bizarre sequence in which people get pushed through a succession of shop windows to the loud crash of breaking glass, and a cyclist pushed off his cycle by a group of carol singers whose collection box is stolen and plundered.

Farceur in chief Tom Walls is a much more agile presence in front of the camera than behind it.

In an age where nothing is seasonal anymore, and many films seem to depress and need to be 'relevent' or 'deep' content this is a rip-roaring and fast moving holiday yarn to enjoy full of 1930s fun, complete with the banter and slang of the period. It contains a group of stock characters, who demonstrate the HUGE enjoyment of their performances. Tom Walls,is the tough guy hero, the monocled Ralph Lynn treis to get the girl, but is overshadowed by Max, the formidable beanpole Mrs Stoatt (Norma Varden) and with Dorothy Hyson as RoseAdair Thisis a great film to settle down to late at night with the Christmas tree twinkling and a bottle of wine if you need a tonic after all the stress! The plot is rollicking fun from start to finish.

The sheer sense of fun begins at the beginning, when Max Wheeler (Tom Walls)has arrived at the home of his fiancé (Marjorie Corbett)and takes an evening walk along the prom. Two young boys are staring through the window at a show by the pierettes (the leader being the scantily clad Rose Adair)Max takes a peek himself and after the show comes to her aid when she is accosted by Westbourne(DA Clarke Smith) She has no money and Westbourne wants to take advantage of her because she owes him money. Max gives her tea and helps her out.

Unfortunately their paths cross again and finally she seeks his help again. When her landlady Mrs Gather (Mary Borough) comes to insist on Mrs Stoatt to help her, a complete farce begins.

The comic highlights for me, are the scene where three shop windows were broken one after the other- a masterpiece! (Tom Walls also directed). The second is a carol singing scene, where the singers led out into the snow by Mrs Stoatt, )a tall beanpole of a woman who henpecks her husband) to form a circle to sing Good King Wenceslas. You hear all the individual voices which match the singers. A trumpet sets up in opposition and then leaves,a car passes through and they all have to scatter . Finally a biketries to ride through the group and the fur coated Mrs Stoater, who has had enough just raises her arm without comment and pushes him and the bike over without a comment leaving the poor man sprawling on the ground.

If you love the 1930's and you love high farce,and you want something different and don't mind black and white, you'll just love it!! You can't be dull to watch this-it is a 1930's idiom andyou must concentrate and really enjoy the ridiculous nature of the film. This film was often on Channel 4 in the 1980s, where I and many friends enjoyed it every year.Good to know our Grannies and Great Grannies had such fun entertainment .The film really captures the spirit of the age