The Lambeth Walk

British Silent film comedian Lupino Lane charms continuously in this bit-o-fluff from the stage hit Me And My Gal. A musical farce in which spry little Cockney Lane inherits a title, an ancestral castle and a blue-blooded family. The snobby family wants him to marry high; a cousin played vampishly by Enid Stamp Taylor, but he has down to earth love for cute but lowly Sally Gray. Although slow to get started, like most winning British humor, colonials will get with it if patient. The peak is a dinner party where the poor teach the rich how to party via doing the Lambeth Walk that led to our dancing out of the theatre! Thank god for film festivals like this one that make rare films like this available and the folks who provide comments to IMDB for others to share. Please support the IMDB and early film festivals!

I just saw this in the basement of the British Film Institute in London, and it is indeed a lost cultural treasure. Diminutive comedian Lupino Lane recreates his stage rôle of Bill Snibson with pert Sally Gray as his Sally. In the scene where humble cockney Lane tries to move about in his voluminous House of Lords' robe with train, he makes it a living thing. He gets more out of 14 yards of velvet than Fred ever got out of Ginger (and that's saying something!) Only two songs from the original stage production are sung: "Lambeth Walk" and "Me and My Girl," but other songs lurk intriguingly as background music. The BFI print has French subtitles, many capturing the puns of the original. For example, in English--

Hostess: "I'd like you to meet Mr. & Mrs. Leer."

Bill: "I know your relatives, the Chandles."

In French subtitles--

Hostess: "I'd like you to meet Mr. & Mrs. Lyre." (also pronounced "leer")

Bill: "I know your relatives, the Harps."

Peers and cockneys dancing "The Lambeth Walk" together in finale could have been more excitingly photographed -- but Lupino Lane proves himself an unsung National Treasure!