User Reviews

If its got Michael Shepley in it then it must be a quota quickie.This one has quite a distinguished cast including Oscar Asche of Chu Chin Chow fame,Alistair Sim and Barry Mackay.Edward Everett Horton plays his usual milquetoast character who gets involved in situations by mistake.Not quite as good as hos character in To Hat Mae the same year.Accetable nonetheless.

A very minor quota quickie from Julius Hagen, but a pleasure to watch, with some very good performances and laugh-out-loud moments. The plot, such as it is, requires practically everyone in the film to be mistaken for someone else, and although most of the situations are somewhat telegraphed and barely plausible - and the ending of the film is hardly in doubt - it is great fun to watch them all unfold.

The most bizarre aspect of the film is the appearance of Edward Everett Horton as the eponymous secretary - this only a few weeks after making Top Hat with Fred and Ginger. What possessed him? He turns in a typical performance, but large chunks of the film consist purely of location footage of the great man doing some comedy confusion and pratfalls, in London (fascinating for the social historians among us) and the country. One can only imagine how the film was made - did the solo footage come later, to pad the film out? Or beforehand? Star performance is that of Oscar Asche as the portly rich uncle back from India. But also worthy of note is an early performance by Alastair Sim as a fake spiritualist, his trademark lugubriousness already in place.

Milquetoast Edward Everett Horton is the clerical private secretary, in London for some reason, calling upon wastrel Barry McKay, who is being pursued by creditors. McKay comes up with the idea of having Horton take his place -- without telling him, of course -- and assuming Horton's, until McKay's enormously wealthy uncle arrives from London. Complications ensue, including McKay falling in love with his quondam employer's daughter, and the dotty old lady who loved Horton's uncle until he died a quarter of a century earlier, and for whom Horton is named; Alistair Sim is the medium who promises to open communications with her lost love.

It's played extremely broadly. If there are a few scenes intended to open it up from the original stage play by Charles Hawtrey, they are obvious interruptions to the play. Oscar Ashe is amusing as McKay's uncle, who is appalled by Horton, and who thinks there's nothing better than a red-blooded nephew who owes large sums. There are a few funny lines scattered through the dialogue, but the coy score doesn't help much.