Vintage Wine

Oh darlings; this is a kindly little story about an gentleman in his early sixties (Seymour Hicks) whose family have decided that he must end his profligate ways and come back home to live in his family's vineyard home. Unsurprisingly when we meet his family - elderly mother, sister, two sons and a really quite annoying grand-daughter - he regales against this proposition and returns to Rome. It's only there that we discover he has a secret and when his family have a guardian appointed to stop him further disposing of the family fortune it all, well, hits the fan. Hicks is on good form, though the part is hardly demanding, the humour a touch on the repetitive side and the comedy not too farcical to make one cringe in (not so eager) anticipation. Miles Malleson (bedecked in a cracking beard - who was 47 at the time of filming) makes for a interesting choice as one of his sons, as does Kynaston Reeves as the other (who was 42) but that all just adds to the daftness of the whole thing. Forgettable, I'd say - and maybe twenty minutes too long - but it raises a smile now and again if you've a forgiving nature....

For me this has a period charm all of its own. I found the comedy, especially that of Seymour Hicks to be in some ways surprisingly modern. The plot is utterly absurd and all the better for it. It is played full force and everyone looks to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. It's an early film, and not on a huge budget but just go with the flow and you'll enjoy it as it relentlessly pokes fun at the generation gap - all four of them!

Although this is professionally made and well acted, it's hardly the funniest farce I've ever seen. Tom Walls was doing very similar stuff back then but whereas Walls was a less talented actor than Hicks, his films were funnier.

This is just about amusing enough to keep your attention. Once you've started watching this, annoyingly you'll feel the need to stick with it until the end. That's mainly due to the well written, entertaining characters. Veteran stage actor Seymour Hicks actually delivers a very amusing and nuanced performance. You will take an instant liking to him, he's pretty cool. Likewise, although far from cool, Eva Moore's formidable and eccentric great-grandmother is quite a treat.

Amusing characters alone cannot compensate for not having a witty script which this picture sorely lacks. It's essentially just a one joke comedy. The plot is the sort of thing which might be used in an episode of an old sit-com but even the lamest sit-com would have had other jokes thrown in.

Maybe if you saw this on stage at your local theatre - and you like old fashioned farces - you'd probably enjoy this. But even the biggest fan of early thirties English comedy, would struggle to laugh at this on film. Nevertheless it's got a certain comforting warmth and charm about it. Thanks to the professionalism of the production, Mr Hicks' genuinely engaging personality and of course the presence of lovely Claire Luce, it's watchable - but Tom Walls' Aldwych Farces are much better.

A vintage British comedy of the Poinot family led by elderly matriarch Josephine Popinot.

They are a wealthy French family who make champagne. Concerns are raised as her son Charles Popinot (Seymour Hicks) as been living it up with a mistress in Rome.

Josephine plans to travel to Rome to have a showdown and maybe wrest control back of the family business from Charles.

Only Charles does not have a mistress. He has a wife of two year who has also given him an infant son.

The trouble is his wife thinks that Charles is in his 40s. He is in his 60s, has two grown up children and a granddaughter.

The truth comes out when they all arrive in Rome. It leaves Charles in the dog house with his wife and his mother.

Adapted from a stage play, this is a farce but it does not really translate well on film. It is amiable enough and fast moving.

Seymour Hicks' elderly sons think he is losing it at 62. He lives in Rome, instead of the ancestral champagne estates, has a mistress and has squandered a third of his fortune. They conspire with his mother to trap him on the estate with them as guardians. Little do they know the reality: he is married to Claire Luce, who thinks him 45 and they have a six- month-old son.

It's an amusing situation and Seymour Hicks -- best remembered these days for playing Scrooge for forty years on the stage and twice on film -- plays it to the hilt, full of twitches, while Miss Luce plays a veddy English Sicilian girl. The standout performance is Eva Moore as Hicks' mother.

It's a three-act stage comedy, opened out with some tracking shots and you may downgrade it slightly for that. However, this cut-glass farce is played impeccably by practiced hands and kept me laughing when I first saw it (when I was 62).