My Wife's Lodger

This film was clearly made with cinemas in the north of England in mind.You can tell that by the regional accents and supposed location of this film.The film has a threadbare appearance in every sense.It looks as if it were filmed in a broom cupboard by a third rate theatrical trope.Even Diana Dors is dragged down.Notice how when she is in her home she talks with a broad Lancashire accent but when she is outside say the dance hall she talks without an accent.The basic problem though is that this film is completely unfunny.What is most surprising is that the BFI should consider this film worthy of a DVD release.I cant see anything of interest in this tepid load of tripe.

Dominic Roche (who also wrote the stage show this was based on) has just been demobbed after eight years in to find his son has grown up to be be a man glad he has been sacked, his daughter is Diana Dors and his wife, Olive Sloane is much taken with the lodger, Leslie Dwyer.

It starts off as a Northern show, with every third word 'ee' and winds up in a purely farcical situation with a tacked-on and improbable happy ending.

Although the comedy proceeds on its rote way easily enough, this was not the sort of movie of which director Maurice Elvey could be proud. He had begun directing in 1913, and between 918 and the middle of the 1930s was one of Britain's leading and inventive directors. But, of course, The British film industry had been in crisis since the 1920s, and this movie marked a sudden drop in budget and quality of his work. He would soldier on for another five years before throwing in the towel, but this was one of the poorest of his movies.

Maurice Elvey objected to screenings of these cut price knockabouts as examples of his work, as some friends of mine discovered when they invited him to front this feeble second feature.

Decades after his death he has, of course, been justified by the recovery of his lost LIFE OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, and the dusting off of his twenties HINDLE WAKES, allowed to molder on archive shelves during his lifetime - the two most imposing British silent films known.

It was outrageous that the British film industry was unable to find a better use for the maker than this un-funny stage hit with an ugliness that extended beyond its wallpapered decors into its depiction of a returned soldier bread winner rejected by his family for not being able to advance their living standard until he receives a legacy which make him the head of the house rather than the spiv war time tenant.

Plot strands appear and vanish abruptly. Marx Brothers gags are re-staged weakly and only Diana Dors, plausible as the British blonde bombshell daughter, generates any interest. We can see elements of HINDLE WAKES in the brief downwards shots of the Palais dancing or the milk man starting the day on the terrace street but the film is without any of the feeling of community - both oppressive and supporting which made the earlier film remarkable.

Elvey brings some smoothness to the staging but is defeated by poor studio matching and his undistinguished cast and crew.

Seems from the previous reviews that Brits don't much care for this film. Sorry but I found the humor in this film very funny. Love the lead comic actor a lot. He has really great comedic talents and makes the film memorable to me. Mr Roche enlivens every frame of film he is in and I'm so happy to have discovered this British comic that was unknown to this American cinephile.

The screenplay has some great comedic scenes starting right off the bat with a funny skit in a crowded train cabin with a mean little kid causing mischief. From there it brings us to the main protagonists home where he has been away for 6 years in the army overseas. Instead of being overjoyed at his return the family ignores him or disparages him in favor of a sleazy lodger who has taken his place in their affections.

The rest of the film details how our putupon hero recovers his families affections and reveals the true nature of his adversary in a series of comic set pieces that had me laughing out loud at times. The film is helped considerably by a fine cast of supporting actors particularly the cantankerous elderly mother in law who steals every scene she is in.

Diana Dors the British Marilyn Monroe is excellent as well playing Roches bombshell of a daughter. Roches wife in the film is very well played as well. All in all the film is a nice example of slap stick character driven British comedy of the period. Some reviewers have put it down as a Marx Bros type film.

Being a great admirer of classic American slapstick comedy I can't think of a higher praise for this film. Unfortunately some British critics have their noses so high in the air they can't smell the roses of brilliant farcical comedy! This is definitely one of those times.