In the Soup

I've spent the past few weeks rereading Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey mysteries and noted someone in them saying he looked like Ralph Lynn -- I pictured him as Claude Hulbert myself. So when Mr. Lynn showed up, I took an opportunity to look at him in the movie version of this farce.

Mr. Lynn is a very unsuccessful barrister, without a penny to his name, living in an expensive flat with a full staff. On the other hand, he has a trust that he will come into on his fortieth birthday, if he is unmarried, and his uncle, Morton Selten, is on his way back from India to sign the papers. On the other hand, he has a wife in the very pretty Judy Gunn, the servants have walked out because they haven't been paid, the gas has been turned off..... oh, let it stand that the usual complications ensue.

This is farce, after all, and Mr. Lynn was one of the Aldwych farceurs, as a result, even though the goings-on may seem pretty stupid to a modern audience, no one can take exception with the way the cast handles the various silly situations, with speed, grace and the bright seriousness that such goings-on require to make them funny. The butt of the jokes are the characters who make them, and if anyone objects to people who are being fools getting their own come-uppances, they had better stick to knock-knock jokes.

I only watched this because Judy Gunn is rather lovely - that's no excuse to suffer this. I love 1930s British movies but not this one. Because so many were pretty awful, English films from that decade have garnered a poor reputation - this does nothing to dispel that assertion.

If you're familiar with The Aldwych Farces, you'll know Ralph Lynn - the dim-witted posh one. Here he plays an even sillier version of himself than usual therefore childish rather than funny. Putting a complete nit-wit in a plot when he's meant to be a barrister and even more unrealistically meant to be married to lovely Judy Gunn simply doesn't work.

Having just enjoyed the excellent-ish, laugh out loud 1935 Twickenham comedy, PRIVATE SECRETARY, perhaps my bar had been raised too high. There are a few funny moments but its humour and pacing is erratic. For a comedy that has a plot to grab you, the characters have to have at least a little credibility - these have none.

Ralph Lynn is best known for his roles in the Aldwych farces and their screen recreations.In this film he plays a hard up barrister who is trying to let his expensive flat,and with his wife,have to become servants at a meal served to potential tenants.Like many of these type of films the humour is rather dated and veers to the slapstick more often than not.In fact the best scenes are at the beginning when he goes to the High Court to represent a client only to go into the wrong court and get involved in the wrong case.it is reminiscent of the beginning of My learned Friend and Claude Hulbert at his best.The rest of the film from then on is uneven.Look out for Mervyn John in the small role of the barristers clerk.