Those Were the Days

This film is so great on many levels.First there is Will Hay in what one might call a straight part.Then there is John Mills as a juvenile lead,and most of all we have the music hall turns.All of them getting on towards the end of their respective careers.So there couldn't have been a better time for their acts to be recorded for posterity.The strangest of all is the act of G H Elliott.I cant repeat the name of his act.However his most famous number is Lilly of Laguna.After he has been through the first chorus he looks in the camera and asks the cinema audience to join him.He cocks his ear,is dissatisfied with what he is "hearing" so exhorts the audience to greater volume.This is repeated till he says that he is satisfied.I wonder what they made of that in the cinema at the time.If you like musical hall then you must see this film.

Bright farce played at a good speed is sure to delight those who enjoy the form. The big plus for this movie, though, is the fact that half of it takes place at a music hall, and half a dozen excellent acts fill out the film. This is an early writing credit for Frank Launder and is the movie debut of Will Hay.

This is a history capsule not only of Victorian times but the 1930's too. Pinero wrote his play The Magistrate in 1885 which can wreak havoc with the extraneous musical chronology if you're bothered - for example Two Lovely Black Eyes was first performed in May 1886. Not been on the TV for decades now (I last saw it in 1984) - I wonder if it's because of the 3 minute black-face minstrel number that UK TV has banned it?

The plot involves a farcical situation between judge Hay and his young stepson Mills and Hay's straitlaced wife and sister (and her beau) that develops at an insalubrious Music Hall. "Walter" Patch as Inspector Briggs had some good lines, and even 16 year old Jimmy Hanley came in near the end. All of which is overshadowed for me by the actual turns themselves, Lily Morris and Harry Bedford in particular. Although she was 50 and the glory days were long behind she had another 18 years to go treading the boards. It's a wonderful glimpse into a form of entertainment that started to disappear during World War 1, this film was really only made for elderly and nostalgic cinema patrons but thank Heavens! Favourite bits: I'll be your sweetheart; When I take my morning promenade; A little bit off the top; Lily of Laguna - inviting the cinema audience to sing along, same as Nellie Dean in King Of Jazz; the Little Tich impersonator; Follow the van.

Marvellous stuff if you like British Music Hall, not much here for you if you don't.