It seems to be a very familiar theme in British films of the 1930s to have a slightly gormless businessman supposedly duped out of his life's savings only to find that in fact that he has backed a winner.After all George Formby used this basic story in many of his films.George Carney buys a plot of land from Peter Cawthorne,who always seemed to play rogue businessmen.He is going to build brick houses on the land only to find out that his plan isn't realistic.Having managed to coerce Cawthorne into taking the land back he is stopped from selling the land at the last moment because the railway want to develop the area.Everyone is happy other than Cawthorne and Carneys son can go to study in Vienna.You might say that this is the epitome of a quota quickie.Keeping the plot moving briskly along regardless of the implausibilities.No better or worse than many.
2 Reviews
Two Households Alike in Indignity
boblipton24 March 2017
George Carney is a local contractor with a brickyard. Gus MacNaughton is a local contractor with a cement plant. They compete for contracts and wrangle and their children are in love. When Peter Gawthorne talks about draining the marshland abutting their town, they see the prospect of easy riches.
All three men were well known supporting actors in the 1930s and 1940s. Carney is probably best remembered as Wendy Hiller's father in I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING; MacNaughton appeared in small roles in films for Hitchcock and the Kordas; and Gawthorne was a familiar face in more than a hundred movies. This quota quickie -- from specialist Maclean Rogers -- is a good-natured, minor effort that offers those familiar faces without straining much for the British cinema attendee, with four sets and simple camera set-ups. It's familiar and pleasant and over in seventy minutes.
All three men were well known supporting actors in the 1930s and 1940s. Carney is probably best remembered as Wendy Hiller's father in I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING; MacNaughton appeared in small roles in films for Hitchcock and the Kordas; and Gawthorne was a familiar face in more than a hundred movies. This quota quickie -- from specialist Maclean Rogers -- is a good-natured, minor effort that offers those familiar faces without straining much for the British cinema attendee, with four sets and simple camera set-ups. It's familiar and pleasant and over in seventy minutes.
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