Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane toured the variety halls of pre-war Britain in a comedy act called "Come Over", in which Lucan (in drag) played an Irish washerwoman named Old Mother Riley, while McShane (Lucan's real-life wife) played Mother Riley's daughter Kitty. They parlayed these roles into a series of films, very popular in 1930s Britain and still shown today on bank-holiday television. Only the last film in the series ("Mother Riley Meets the Vampire", minus McShane) had played widely in America, due to the casting of Bela Lugosi as the villain.
The Old Mother Riley films aren't very funny. Lucan is totally unbelievable as a woman, and he speaks all his lines in a high-pitched falsetto which sounds neither female nor Irish. Kitty Riley (played by McShane) is supposed to be the most beautiful girl in town, so gorgeous that all the young men are always courting her. Not to be ungallant, but Kitty McShane isn't very pretty, and she's got enough nose for two Streisands. Whenever Old Mother Riley gets in trouble, she shouts her peculiar catchphrase "Mrs Ginocchio, S.O.S.!" (Mrs Ginocchio is Mother Riley's neighbour, often mentioned but never seen, like Jimmy Durante's "Mrs Calabash".)
"Old Mother Riley, M.P." is one of the better Lucan films, which isn't saying much. Mother Riley runs afoul of her local council, so she campaigns to get herself elected to Parliament. Torin Thatcher gives a good performance (too good for this film) as Kitty's sailor boyfriend who's planning to marry her.
There were weird touches of surrealism in all the Mother Riley films. The best scene in this movie occurs during Mother Riley's election campaign, when she calls on a household in her district. The house looks normal, but the husband and wife who live here are midgets. Then their son comes to the door, and he's nearly seven feet high.
American viewers might be surprised to notice an item in the credits of this movie: it was distributed by 'Butcher's Film Service'. A film service for meat-choppers? This corporate name was the producer's joke: "butcher's hook" is Cockney rhyming slang for "have a look". The producer hoped that cinema audiences would want to "have a butcher's" (look) at this movie. Some hope!
I'll give 2 points out of 10 to "Old Mother Riley, M.P."
