By the late 1930s Carol Reed was a young director who was being
talked about as being able to take a pretty ordinary script and turn
it into something special. Have loved Edmund Gwen ever since "The
Good Companions" and together with Cedric Hardwicke as the two
brothers-in-law who can barely tolerate each other they don't disappoint.
Tremendous movie - starts off a bit "what's going on then" but soon gets
started. On the surface George (Gwen) is a happy, contented man whose
biggest thrill is his tomato patch but he also has to put up with supporting
his sister and her layabout husband who is always cornering George, begging
for loans for sure fire business deals (and it's always huge amounts, hundreds
of pounds). When George's daughter (a beautiful Victoria Hopper) brings
home her new man, George sizes him up as a rotter instantly, cut from the
same cloth as Baxley. He, too, is after a loan to buy a used car yard and George sees red!! He spins a story over dinner about how he is the head of a big
forgery syndicate - the Mr. Big!!, now he can sit back and watch the fun!!
Is it true or is it a tall tale, only time will tell!!
The movie belongs to Cedric Hardwicke as the bone idle Baxley, forever eating George's bananas, always swiping handfuls of cigarettes to keep his own battered Carven A box replenished. Now he is running scared, seeing spies and criminals lurking in every shadow!! A hilarious scene involves the three of them - Baxley, his wife and George's daughter going for a day on the town, too scared to use the money George gave them but as usual having nothing of their own!! The scene finishes in the restaurant and is a riot!!
All the cast shine with Katie Johnson as George's wife, looking very much the pixilated lady she would appear in "The Lady Killers" of almost 20 years in the future!!
The movie belongs to Cedric Hardwicke as the bone idle Baxley, forever eating George's bananas, always swiping handfuls of cigarettes to keep his own battered Carven A box replenished. Now he is running scared, seeing spies and criminals lurking in every shadow!! A hilarious scene involves the three of them - Baxley, his wife and George's daughter going for a day on the town, too scared to use the money George gave them but as usual having nothing of their own!! The scene finishes in the restaurant and is a riot!!
All the cast shine with Katie Johnson as George's wife, looking very much the pixilated lady she would appear in "The Lady Killers" of almost 20 years in the future!!