Me and Marlborough
Me and Marlborough is a 1935 British comedy film, directed by Victor Saville, and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Tom Walls, Barry MacKay, Peter Gawthorne, Henry Oscar and Cecil Parker.[1]
Me and Marlborough | |
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Opening title card | |
Directed by | Victor Saville |
Produced by | Michael Balcon |
Written by | Marjorie Gaffney Ian Hay W.P. Lipscomb Reginald Pound |
Starring | Cicely Courtneidge Tom Walls Barry McKay Peter Gawthorne Henry Oscar Cecil Parker |
Music by | Louis Levy Jack Beaver |
Cinematography | Curt Courant Charles Van Enger |
Edited by | Michael Gordon |
Distributed by | Gainsborough Pictures Gaumont |
Release date | 1935 |
Running time | 84 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Plot
Sergeant Cummings searches Kit Ross's pub for a deserter drummer boy. When he finds the lad, Kit leads the pub patrons in attacking the sergeant's men, and the young man gets away, for which she is put in stocks. While there, she plans her impending wedding to Dick Welch. However, Cummings gets his revenge. On the night of the wedding, he tricks Dick into taking a shilling, which means he has enlisted in the army. She watches as a ship takes him to the fighting. Undaunted, she disguises herself as a man named Simon and joins up with the Duke of Marlborough's army in Flanders to find her missing husband.[2][3]
Cast
- Cicely Courtneidge - Kit Ross
- Tom Walls - Duke of Marlborough
- Barry MacKay - Dick Welch
- Alfred Drayton - Sergeant Bull
- Iris Ashley - Josephine
- Ivor McLaren - Sergeant Cummings
- Gibb McLaughlin - Old soldier
- Peter Gawthorne - Staff Colonel
- Cecil Parker - Colonel of the Greys
- George Merritt - Harley
- Cyril Smith as Corporal Fox
- Mickey Brantford - Ensign Coke
- Randle Ayrton - King Louis XIV
- Henry Oscar - Goultier
- Percy Walsh - Naylor
- Donald Calthrop - Drunken Yokel
Reception
Writing for The Spectator, Graham Greene criticized the theatrical qualities of Courtneidge's performance, claiming that "I found myself too embarrassed by Miss Courtneidge's facial contortions to appreciate their share. Miss Courtneidge is used to throwing her effects to the back row of a theatre gallery, and the camera is not kind to her exaggerations".[4]
References
- "Me and Marlborough (1935)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- "BFI | Film & TV Database | ME AND MARLBOROUGH (1935)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 April 2009. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- "Me and Marlborough | Britmovie | Home of British Films". Britmovie. Archived from the original on 27 November 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
- Greene, Graham (6 September 1935). "Dood Wasser/Me and Marlborough". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. p. 19. ISBN 0192812866.)