This is a very early film appearance for Naunton Wayne. He and Arthur Riscoe are a couple of young Englishmen in Venice for Carnevale, but the couple next door, famous tenor Franco Foresta is unreasonably jealous of his wife, Diana Napier, so the two blokes, being good chaps, decide to help her out in a Crazy Comedy manner....
There are many bright spots in this movie, including extensive background shooting in Venice, some excellent operatic interludes, including Offenbach's Baccarole performed on a canal, and even the sort of silly-ass humor that the Brits excelled in during this period. It's not at all well integrated, although apparently this movie was popular enough to be re-issued over the years -- the copy I saw had pre-credit titles that indicated it dated from some time late during the Second World War.
Perhaps it was because by this time Wayne had become indelibly identified with the role of the Englishman abroad, traveling with a buddy. Fortunately, paired with Basil Radford, he was no longer distracted by women, but had his mind on higher things, like cricket.
There are many bright spots in this movie, including extensive background shooting in Venice, some excellent operatic interludes, including Offenbach's Baccarole performed on a canal, and even the sort of silly-ass humor that the Brits excelled in during this period. It's not at all well integrated, although apparently this movie was popular enough to be re-issued over the years -- the copy I saw had pre-credit titles that indicated it dated from some time late during the Second World War.
Perhaps it was because by this time Wayne had become indelibly identified with the role of the Englishman abroad, traveling with a buddy. Fortunately, paired with Basil Radford, he was no longer distracted by women, but had his mind on higher things, like cricket.
