His Lordship

BFI NFTVA-TIK DATORREN KOPIA/COPY FROM BFI NFTVA/COPIA PROCEDENTE DE BFI NFTVA

Recently discovered, this odd mixture of musical comedy and political satire, with a gang of comic anarchists trying to kidnap the unlikely heir to an aristocratic title, shows Powell's humour and willingness to mix genres. A dozen or so under-rehearsed chorines in suspenders shuffle through a bit of number involving buckets and mops, and that's as near as this quota-quicky gets to Busby Berkley. Long considered a lost Powell, and only lately rediscovered, it confirms the director's “never say die” credo, here applied to a sluggish scenario which draws on such 30s indicators as a plumber who's really a lord, a publicity-mad film star and some comic Bolsheviks (there can't be many English-language movies with a heroine named Leninia). The songs are quite amusing in the cabaret style of the day, and the low key, fretful persona of Jerry Varno is not unattractive. Bob Baker (Time Out)

YEAR   1932 PRODUCTION   Jerome Jackson Westminster Films DIRECTOR   Michael Powell SCREENPLAY   Ralph Smart PHOTOGRAPHY   Geoffrey Faithfull MUSIC   V.C. Clinton-Baddeley, Eric Maschwitz CAST   Jerry Verno (Bert Gibbs), Janet McGrew (Ilya Myona), Ben Welden (Washington Lincoln), Polly Ward (Leninia) RUNNING TIME   77 m.

OFFICIAL SPONSOR

COLLABORATOR