Revolving door farce with enough mixups, slipups misunderstandings, crafty schemes and chance encounters to provide a rich vein of comedy. But how acting styles have changed over time! The cast plays this one as if trying to communicate with a distant back row of seats in a large hall. To a modern screen audience this type of acting comes across as exaggerated melodrama (right down to the villainous moustache twirling!). All the same, if you can ignore the dated acting method there's some good fun here in the style of a PG Wodehouse novel.
3 Reviews
Very much a period piece
robert-temple-114 August 2008
This concoction, very much of its time, was a comedic account of some ne'er do wells at large at Nice in the south of France, put together by a team of men who worked together for years, Tom Walls who both directed and starred, Ralph Lynn, Ben Travers the writer, and several others in the cast who were part of the same bunch of chums. They used to stage farces at London's Aldwych Theatre in the 1920s, and in the 1930s they made several films like this. The acting and the approach are very theatrical and somewhat stiff for the screen. But they mean well, and they pull off a passably entertaining yarn, even though the humour is rather arch, not to say 'proscenium arch'. Robertson Hare and Norma Varden are superb at playing an absolutely ghastly couple, and the tiny Ivor Barnard makes one uneasy as 'the Count', since one believes he may really be that creepy and sinister. Cecil Parker is a classic bombast as a self-satisfied and pompous landed peer. These are stock characters, and very much a glimpse at 1930s Britain, with its types and its fantasies. How 'in' grand gambling casinos were then! How black were the black ties and how white were the white ties! As one looks at these old films, one appreciates more and more how much 'dressing for dinner' and all that it represented were as much a uniform as Army fatigues, and as earnest a recipe for exclusivity as the hijab.
Has its moments!
JohnHowardReid28 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Tom Walls (Captain the Honorable Archibald Gore), Ralph Lynn (Jefferson Darby), Robertson Hare (Hardy Hornett), Norma Varden (Mrs Hardy Hornett), Diana Churchill (Sophie, an adventuress), Cecil Parker (Lord Wormington, a nephew of Captain Gore), Basil Radford (another of Gore's relatives), Kathleen Kelly (Millicent, the daughter of Lord Wormington), Gordon James (Rope), Ivor Barnard (the count).
Director: TOM WALLS. Original screenplay and dialogue: Ben Travers. Photography: Roy Kellino. Film editor: Alfred Roome. Art director: A. Vetchinsky. Music director: Louis Levy. Sound recording: P. Dorte. British Acoustic Film Sound System. Producer: Michael Balcon. A Gainsborough Picture.
Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. Copyright 1935 by Gaumont British Picture Corp. U.K. release through Gaumont: February 1936. Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 25 March 1936. 71 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Rascally but impecunious aristocrat tries to repair his fortunes at the gambling tables of "nice Nice".
COMMENT: Despite the admirably enthusiastic efforts of just about all the players, particularly Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare and Norma Varden (in a sizable role for once), this Ben Travers farce is a bit weaker than usual — a fact that has not escaped director/actor Tom Walls. Not only is his performance a bit off-hand (though still quite amusing) but his direction (aside from one or two spots, most notably the slow pan around the French courtroom, taking in all those wonderful faces) is stolidly routine, with an inordinate number of close-ups.
All the same, even a weak Ben Travers exercise is still a happy experience. The audience at a recent theatrical screening laughed loud and often. And this infectious laughter caused me to enjoy the film much more than I would have if I'd been watching it alone.
The fact remains, however, that "Foreign Affaires" is not a quarter as funny as "Pot Luck". (Needless to say, F.A. is available to buy, whereas "Pot Luck" is not).
Miss Churchill makes a sympathetic heroine, and I also enjoyed Kathleen Kelly in a brief role as Wormington's spirited daughter.
Ivor Barnard seems a bit incongruous as the count, but he's supposed to be a phony anyway.
A large array of not-credited character players contribute mightily to the fun. Production values are A-1.
Director: TOM WALLS. Original screenplay and dialogue: Ben Travers. Photography: Roy Kellino. Film editor: Alfred Roome. Art director: A. Vetchinsky. Music director: Louis Levy. Sound recording: P. Dorte. British Acoustic Film Sound System. Producer: Michael Balcon. A Gainsborough Picture.
Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. Copyright 1935 by Gaumont British Picture Corp. U.K. release through Gaumont: February 1936. Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 25 March 1936. 71 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Rascally but impecunious aristocrat tries to repair his fortunes at the gambling tables of "nice Nice".
COMMENT: Despite the admirably enthusiastic efforts of just about all the players, particularly Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare and Norma Varden (in a sizable role for once), this Ben Travers farce is a bit weaker than usual — a fact that has not escaped director/actor Tom Walls. Not only is his performance a bit off-hand (though still quite amusing) but his direction (aside from one or two spots, most notably the slow pan around the French courtroom, taking in all those wonderful faces) is stolidly routine, with an inordinate number of close-ups.
All the same, even a weak Ben Travers exercise is still a happy experience. The audience at a recent theatrical screening laughed loud and often. And this infectious laughter caused me to enjoy the film much more than I would have if I'd been watching it alone.
The fact remains, however, that "Foreign Affaires" is not a quarter as funny as "Pot Luck". (Needless to say, F.A. is available to buy, whereas "Pot Luck" is not).
Miss Churchill makes a sympathetic heroine, and I also enjoyed Kathleen Kelly in a brief role as Wormington's spirited daughter.
Ivor Barnard seems a bit incongruous as the count, but he's supposed to be a phony anyway.
A large array of not-credited character players contribute mightily to the fun. Production values are A-1.
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