Letting in the Sunshine

Lupino Lane directed many silent shorts whilst in Hollywood and his expertise shows.Albert Burdon is very adept at physical comedy.There is one reel where there is just physical gags,no sound apart from sound effects and music.There is an interesting sequence in a cinema to the backdrop of an organ recitalist wonder if this is shot in a real cinema.A very bunch title number to a lively comedy.

Albert Burdon stars as an inept window cleaner with a funny mustache. He and his girlfriend, a house maid played by Renee Gadd, stumble onto a jewel robbery at a swanky masquerade party after they have crashed the party dressed up as ... a window clear and a house maid!

Directed by Lupino Lane, the film features several extended silent sequences accompanied by sound effects. Lane had had an extensive career as a silent film comedian. Burdon, did not appear in silent films, but he sort of resembles Lane (with touches of Monty Banks and Charlie Chaplin) in the silent scenes. While the plot isn't much, there are some delightful scenes, such as the extended dance Burdon and Gadd do.

Co-stars include Molly Lamont as the swanky Lady Anne, Henry Mollison as the lead crook, Syd Crossley as the butler, Ethel Warwick as the housekeeper, and Toni Edgar-Bruce as the duchess.

The best sequence has Burdon and Gadd in a movie theater, sitting next to a rubber-faced old lady, with a cat under their feet.

Albert Burdon with his silly little painted-on moustache rather resembles Lupino Lane himself and passes muster as an agile and endearing window-cleaning hero (which incredibly is what the title song actually refers to).

Renee Gadd too isn't the usual stiff female lead, proving nimble on her feet and handy with her fists as the film progresses...

This was part of a DVD box set on British comedies from the 1930's. I'd never heard of star Albert Burdon before (he didn't star in too many films but seems to have been very successful on the stage). His character is a cheerful persona, kind of a "cheeky chappy" who loves to provoke and break the rules whilst toiling away at his window cleaning job. "Letting in the Sunshine" is a mix of slapstick and wordplay. You can see the influence of silent film in a number of slapstick scenes (but, unlike in silent films, there's lot of funny sound effects). You see many typical elements of the talkies of the early 30's, which focused on verbal comedy and music. This film is a real mix of genres. It's not truly a musical (there aren't many songs), and the musical numbers are not elaborately staged like in American films of the same period. But the songs are sweetly cheery, and the musical number at the end of the film is enthusiastic and fun. I switched off the DVD smiling about my discovery of this little film.