User reviews

Arthur Lucan, a Lancashire lad, played Old Mother Riley, a comic Irish Irish crone, for many years old the stage and screen; his wife, Kitty McShane, played his daughter. The only modern comparison would be to Tyler Perry's Madea ... if Madea were played by Rob Schneider acting like Stepin Fetchit. Produced cheaply for the home market, Old Mother Riley was enormously popular.

In this movie, Mrs. Riley goes for a job with a failing circus and saves it, discovers Kitty McShane, her long-lost daughter has been with it since she was an infant and has to save it again from Roy Emerton, its shoddy owner.

The comparative excellence -- so to speak --- is achieved by the use of circus acts and a subplot in which Riley goes to an illegal nightclub, where an uncredited young woman in a spangly bikini sings and does a tap dance. I credit director Thomas Bentley, a specialist in portraying and staging Dickens, whose movie career stretched back to 1912, and included THOSE WERE THE DAYS, a British movie which showcased several music hall acts and an early appearance by Will Hay. This was his last film credit.

I never did like circuses so pot this together with OMR gives an entertainment free zone apart from the bright dance by the dancer in the spangled bikini. Lucans antics are unfunny and as for Kitty in that cowboy outfit at the end,the saying mutton dressed up as lamb,comes to mind.