Those Were the Days (1934 film)

Those Were the Days
Directed by Thomas Bentley
Produced by Walter C. Mycroft
Written by Jack Jordan
Frank Launder
Frederick A. Thompson
Starring Will Hay
Iris Hoey
Angela Baddeley
Claud Allister
George Graves
John Mills
Cinematography Otto Kanturek
Edited by Edward B. Jarvis
Release dates
 April 1934
Running time
 80 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Those Were the Days is a 1934 British film primarily remembered as Will Hay's first major screen role. It was based on Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's 1885 farce The Magistrate and was the first of two Hay movies based on Pinero's plays, the other being Dandy Dick. The movie also featured music hall acts of the time[1] - acts of a type rarely committed to film.

Synopsis

Strait-laced Magistrate Brutus Poskett (Will Hay) is concerned that his wife (Iris Hoey) may be older than he believes her to be, especially as his young stepson (John Mills) seems very precocious for an apparently fifteen-year-old boy.

Mrs Poskett tries to stop an upcoming visit from her first husband's friend (Claud Allister), who knows her true age, by confronting him at a local music hall. However, unbeknownst to her, Poskett has also been convinced to go to the music hall with his "adolescent" stepson and, in an ensuing melee, Poskett's wife and her sister are arrested.

The following day, Poskett sentences both to seven days imprisonment, failing to recognise them as they are heavily veiled.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ The film features the music hall acts of Lily Morris, Harry Bedford, the gymnasts Gaston & Andre, G. H. Elliott, Sam Curtis and Frank Boston & Betty.

External links