Arthur Askey Movies
- 1977
This humorous video is a compilation of a multitude of comedic clips from various British films spanning from 1930 to 1970. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- 1959
A persuasive ad man cons a British TV makeup artist to slip in a promotion for Bonko Detergent during a show in this comedy. The ploy is a success until the makeup man is fired. He and the ad man team up and create a pirate station that broadcasts their commercials into other shows. They soon find themselves in trouble when thieves, believing their roving broadcast van is filled with gold, steal the vehicle. The adman radios the police and the robbers are captured. This leads him to get a new job with the television network. The makeup man then interrupts the man's first show with his commercials. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Askey, Sidney James, (more)
- 1959
In this comedy, a British bus conductor is elated to learn that he has won the lottery's grand prize. Then he finds out that the prize is a visit from two Russian social workers. The conductor's wife cleverly turns the visitation into a drinking party and the Russians are very happy. They have so much fun that they tell all their Russian friends to stop in to the conductor's house for a rousing good time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1956
In this British parody of an American western, an Englishman travels to Canada to run the ranch he recently inherited from his grandfather, a crusty old sheriff. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In this comedy, two rabid football fans begin an unstoppable train of events when they physically harass a referee. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Four pilots are forced to bail out, and they end up stuck upon a remote tropical island filled with beautiful women. This musical comedy chronicles their adventures. Things go well for the flying Sea Bees as the women fawn upon them and cater to their every whim. Soon they find themselves four wives, and it is not until it is nearly too late that they discover why there are no men on the island--- all husbands are expected to commit suicide following their honeymoons. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1943
In this musical an American's daughter owns an escort agency. Even though WW II rages and men are hungry for females, the woman's business is flagging until she comes up with some enterprising schemes to turn things around. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1942
British radio funster Arthur Askey inherits British film comedian Will Hay's longtime stooges Moore Marriot and Graham Moffatt in Back Room Boy. Big-Hearted Askey plays a cuckoo scientist seeking peace and quiet in a Scottish lighthouse. No such luck: the house is being used as a rendezvous for Nazi spies. Beyond the presence of Marriot and Moffatt, one gets the impression that Back Room Boy was originally intended as a Will Hay vehicle, inasmuch as Hay's longtime scripters Val Guest and Marriot Edgar wrote the yarn. Young Googie Withers fares well in an a thankless leading-lady assignment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A British soldier stationed in Africa comes to believe that he is in possession of Arthur's Excalibur in this drama. The expert swordsman comes to believe this after he is named a hero during a duel. He attributes his skill and courage to the famous weapon. Later he is deeply embarrassed to learns that it is not Arthur's sword. This does not keep him from saving his friends from enemy hands. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1941
In the late 1930s-early 1940s, diminutive British music-hall and radio comedian Arthur Askey enjoyed a popularity commensurate to that of Hollywood's Abbott & Costello; accordingly, Askey's earliest starring films were all box-office bonanzas. In I Thank You, Askey and his perennial straight man Richard Murdoch are cast as Arthur and Stinker, members of a nearly bankrupt theatrical troupe. To raise some much-needed money, our heroes hire on as servants for Lady Randall (Lily Morris), who'd been an entertainer herself before marrying into the Upper Crust. When Lady Randall learns of Arthur and Stinker's plight, she bankrolls a major stage production for the boys' fellow performers, leading to the inevitable big-production-number finale. Way, way down the cast list of I Thank You is distinguished Shakespearean actor Felix Aylmer, who was seen to rather better advantage as Polonius in Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, (more)
- 1941
In this thriller, a group of stranded passengers are terrified by the weird tales of a stationmaster who tells them of the "ghost train" that rumbles down the darkened tracks. It turns out that the phantasmical locomotive is very real and is used by a gang of arms smugglers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Band Waggon was the BBC radio series that catapulted diminutive comic Arthur Askey to stardom as "Big-Hearted Arthur". This filmization adds a modern touch by taking place during a television broadcast (the BBC was beaming out a regular schedule of TV programs until the War broke out). Askey and his stooge Richard Murdoch take over an ancient castle to convert it to a video center. Jack Hylton's band is to be the main attraction-and in 1940, Hylton was a far bigger name than Askey, so guess who got top billing on most marquees. The castle is alleged to be haunted, but the nocturnal disturbances are actually the handiwork of Nazi spies. From here on, it's every man for himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This film is an adaptation of the Brandon Thomas stage perennial Charley's Aunt, starring bespectacled British radio comedian Arthur Askey. Since Askey's professional nickname was "Big-Hearted Arthur", and since another Charley's Aunt starring Jack Benny went before the cameras in 1941, the title was slightly altered for its limited American release. Otherwise, the story is the same as ever. Dizzy Oxford student Lord Fancourt Babberly (Askey) is persuaded to pose as his pal Charley Wyckham's elderly aunt, in order that Charley's and Jack Chesney's girlfriends will have a proper female escort when they come to visit. The charade is complicated by the presence of Jack's father and of one of the girl's guardians, Stephen Spettigue, both of whom are required by the plotline to "romance" the phoney aunt. Further gumming up the works is the arrival of the genuine Aunt, with Lord Fancourt Babberly's erstwhile lady love in tow. Charley's Big-Hearted Aunt was updated and expanded to allow for the characteristic verbal patter of the then-popular Arthur Askey. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1937
Calling All Stars is one of those musical-revue films which proliferated during the days of the British film industry's "quota" system. The plot, such as it is, is motivated by a clumsy record-factory employee, who while delivering a consignment of discs to a radio station manages to break them all. In desperation, the employee scurries about trying to convince all the recording artists to return to the studio and cut replacement discs. This serves as an excuse to bring a steady stream of popular British variety artists into the picture, most of whom were unknowns in the U.S. Among the more familiar faces in Calling All Stars are such American entertainers as Buck and Bubbles, the Nicholas Brothers, and harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
