A top notch British farce that provides a terrific part for Lupino Lane, having been paired with Lillian Roth just two years before in the big Hollywood musical "The Love Parade". The much nagged second husband of imperious Lola Hunt, hated by her many children and constantly reminded of his supportive part in the family, Lane is definitely a man to feel sorry for.
When the family heads to Blackpool for a seaside vacagkon, Lane somehow ends up with papers meant for foreign agents and has the villains on his trail as well as the police and the hysterically nasty Hunt. Sari Maritza and Renee Clama play exotic femme fatales, with Maritza having given Lane the plans, mistaking him for someone else. Lupino ends up in deaf, performing a big musical number with the most unlikely chorus of old oglers.
Definitely watch for the pantomime expertise of Lane, reminding me more of Harry Langdon than Chaplin, but performing movements obviously influenced by Charlie. His reactions are hysterical, whether being pelted by a feather pillow or dealing with the twirling gated entrance to the beach where the kids keep going in and out, forcing Lane to pay over and over. His slapping scene with the fee collector is very funny. Rated appropriately as if I had been around in 1931.
When the family heads to Blackpool for a seaside vacagkon, Lane somehow ends up with papers meant for foreign agents and has the villains on his trail as well as the police and the hysterically nasty Hunt. Sari Maritza and Renee Clama play exotic femme fatales, with Maritza having given Lane the plans, mistaking him for someone else. Lupino ends up in deaf, performing a big musical number with the most unlikely chorus of old oglers.
Definitely watch for the pantomime expertise of Lane, reminding me more of Harry Langdon than Chaplin, but performing movements obviously influenced by Charlie. His reactions are hysterical, whether being pelted by a feather pillow or dealing with the twirling gated entrance to the beach where the kids keep going in and out, forcing Lane to pay over and over. His slapping scene with the fee collector is very funny. Rated appropriately as if I had been around in 1931.