A Warm Corner

This early Gainsborough flick is truly a lost treasure, and easily one of the most daring and risque films ever made. At least half a dozen different tales seem to be going on at once, all finally meeting in the end. The story starts in the Lido hotel where our "Pickles" remarks upon the fact that everyone in the register is called Smith. He's trying to chat up Mimi so she'll split up with her boyfriend as her boyfriend's uncle has other plans for his nephew - alas what no one knows is that he and Mimi have already been married for a few months, on the sly! The best scenes in the movie were Mimi's, if you like Anne Crawford you'll like this actress, she's a real gem.

1930 was a rough year for British talkies. They were just moving out of the silent era, so even cameraman Freddie Francis was limited in his camera movements. Even with that handicap, director Victor Saville works with a funny script and some great comedy actors. It all starts in Venice, where Heather Thatcher is secretly married to Austin Melford, whose uncle, Alfred Wellesley, wants him to marry Belle Chrystall, daughter of his old school chum, Leslie Henson. Henson wife, however, has contracted with Toni Edgar-Bruce, former barmaid and now aristocratic marriage broker, to marry poor aristocrat Kim Peacock. Add in a few subplots like Melford and Miss Thatcher pulling a badger game on Henson for cash to get them out of Venice, and you have a tangled comic mess.

It's all tied together with some bright lines and some beautiful comic timing. Henson is particularly good. He does a telephone routine as good as anything Bob Newhart ever did. It's a three-set stage show opened up a bit for the movie theater, but it works exceedingly well.

I only rated this movie 3/10 because of the primitive, melodramatic, over the top acting and poor production standards.It has two main scenes, an Italian Hotel and Mr Pickles' castle in England.The actors run around in typical farcical fashion either not listening to or misunderstanding each other.The screenplay is badly structured and for a DVD billed as a comedy - unfunny to modern ears.Yes I know this film is dated 1930 and talking pictures had only come into existence since 1927.The actors are all obviously still inculcated into silent screen melodramatic acting techniques.If this is the best Leslie Henson could produce, film going audiences at the time must have been extremely easy to please.