Moore Marriott Movies

H. G. Wells' non-fantasy efforts have, with the exception of Kipps, proven traditionally difficult to transfer to film. History of Mr. Polly occasionally suffers from too-close fidelity to its Wellsian source; one wishes that adaptor/director Anthony Pelissier could have "opened up" the story a bit more. Still, the film is impeccably cast: particularly good is John Mills as Alfred Polly, whose efforts to make a go in the business world continually come acropper. A humble draper's clerk, Polly is profoundly affected by a variety of personal relationships, most notably with colorful Uncle Jim (Finlay Currie) and his nagging wife Miriam (Betty Ann Davies). Ultimately, he finds happiness in an even humbler pursuit than the drapery business. Star John Mills' daughter Juliet shows up in a very minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a popular singer tires of the fast lane and decides to leave fame and fortune in favor of marriage. After the marriage, she and her groom settle in rural Ireland. Unfortunately their marital bliss, at least the husband's, is interrupted by a wicked lassie who blackmails him and threatens to tell his wife of their old affair is he doesn't pay. In desperation, he decides to kill the troublesome girl, but something goes terribly wrong. Fortunately, things for the singer turn out all right in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a fisherman begins studying to be a doctor. Although he isn't finished with medical school, he begins treating his landlady's daughter who is believed to have a terminal illness. He seems to cure her, and the case draws a lot of attention, some of it negative because he was unlicensed when he treated her. He still does not have a degree when he marries the daughter and begins practicing osteopathy. He soon finds success and happiness until he begins having an affair. Later he jilts his mistress and she kills herself. During the autopsy he is appalled to learn that it was actually his misdiagnosis of her illness and the resulting medical treatment that caused her to die. The distraught osteopath then takes off and does not return until his wife, whose disease has come back, begs him to help her once again. He succeeds and their happiness resumes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Australian-born comic actor Vic Oliver was usually at his best on-screen when teamed with an unusually talented leading lady. Oliver's vis-a-vis in the British I'll be Your Sweetheart was film favorite Margaret Lockwood. Set in the early 1900s, the film concerns the trials and tribulations of musical-hall diva Edie Story (Lockwood), whose happy-go-lucky partner is one Sam Kahn (Oliver). Halfway through the film, Kahn is shunted to the background when Edie falls in love with aspiring songwriter Bob Fielding, played by up-and-coming Michael Rennie. The outcome of the plot is predicated on a Parliamentary decision which rescued songwriters from being gypped out of their royalties by unscrupulous "pirate" publishers, which happens more than once in the early reels to the luckless Fielding. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Don't Take It to Heart is an amiable entry in the 1940s cycle of "ghost comedies". A British castle is rocked by a German bombing raid, releasing a jaunty wraith (Richard Greene) from his house-haunting job. As long as he's got the run of the castle, the ghost decides to take a hand in the romance between mistress-of-the-house Patricia Medina and young researcher Richard Bird. Also in line for ghostly visitation is the nasty landlord who holds the local townsfolk in his avaricious clutches. Don't Take It to Heart received almost uniformly good reviews from the British press, which during wartime was often resistant to comedy films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The inspiration for this British seriocomedy was Victor Skutezky's stage play She Met Him One Sunday. "She" is Moya Malone (Barbara White), an Irish maid living in Liverpool. "He" is Tom Stevens (Robert Beatty), a Canadian sailor. That "one Sunday" is a busy one, encompassing a few romantic strolls down the dock, Moya's renouncing of her servant status, and a run-in with crooks. Playwright Skutezky also served as producer of It Happened One Sunday. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

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

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

Matchless British comedy star Will Hay, he of the supercilious sniff and ill-fitting pince-nez, stars in Ask a Policeman, a follow-up to Hay's successful 1938 comedy-thriller Oh, Mr. Porter. Once again, the incompetent Hay is transferred to a place where he'll do the least amount of harm. This time he's an inept police sergeant, shipped away to a sleepy rural village where no crime has occurred for years. Bored out of his gourd, Hay, together with his perennial stooges Graham Moffatt (fat and cheeky) and Moore Marriott (toothless and senile), plots to "create" a crime wave by leaving a keg of brandy unprotected. They plan to arrest the first person who appropriates the keg and charge him with smuggling. Not surprisingly, the gleesome threesome runs afoul of genuine smugglers. As with most of the best Will Hay comedies of the 1930s, Ask a Policeman is top-heavy with behind-the-scenes talent: among the screenwriters were director Val Guest and frequent Hitchcock collaborator Sidney Gilliat. Best bit: Moore Marriot's rambling recitation of an ancient ghost legend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Girl Must Live is the philosophy of gold-digging chorus girls Gloria Lind (Renee Houston) and Clytie Devine (Lilli Palmer). Both feel that they could live most comfortably off the money inherited by the Earl of Pangborough (Hugh Sinclair) a handsome but unworldly nobleman. Despite the most strenuous efforts by Gloria and Clytie, it is sweet and demure chorine Leslie James (Margaret Lockwood) who claims the Earl as her husband. Robust comedy relief is provided by the venerable George Robey as a bibulous "sugar daddy". A Girl Must Live was one of three 1939 films directed by Carol Reed, still some distance removed from Odd Man Out, The Third Man and Oliver!. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cheer Boys Cheer is a provincial British comedy with slight Romeo and Juliet undertones. Edmund Gwenn and Moore Marriott play rival brewery owners who detest the sight of one another. Not so their children--the son of one man, the daughter of the other--who fall in love. One glance at the film's title, and the viewer knows that boy and girl will not take poison in the end. For so modest an endeavor, Cheer Boys Cheer has a remarkable talent lineup: Edmund Gwenn, Moore Marriott, Jimmy O'Dea, Nova Pilbeam and Alexander Knox in front of the cameras, and Walter Forde and Ronald Neame on the production end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An "answer" to Paul Robeson's Sanders of the River, Old Bones of the River stars comedian Will Hay as Professor Tibbetts, a member of TWIRP ("Teaching and Welfare Institute for the Reform of Pagans"). Not especially suited to his job of bringing English education to native tribes in Africa -- as he arrives, he is still trying to learn the native language through phonograph record lessons -- Tibbetts quickly falls victim to a trick by a duplicitous native prince, involving sneaking a gin still into the country. Tibbetts makes his way to Kombooli High, where his students wear Eton collars with little else. (Tibbetts makes do with a mortarboard and safari shorts.) Things are proceeding reasonably well when the Commissioner takes ill with malaria, and Tibbetts is forced to take over his responsibilities. He travels upriver to begin his tax collecting chores (goats or rubber being perfectly acceptable in lieu of actual money), meeting two old cronies of his in the process and rescuing a baby from an untimely death by sacrifice. Unfortunately, Tibbetts and his pals make rather a mess of things and manage to roil up tensions that result in a native uprising, but things eventually come out alright in the end. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide