Fighting Stock

"Fighting Stock" is one of the British Aldwych farces of the 1920s that Tom Walls directed for films in the 1930s. Walls and Ralph Lynn were the principal players on the stage and in these films, and many of the rest of the original stage cast were in the films. A couple of actors had died before the plays were all made into movies.

This is not one of the better stories and films of the series. It comes the closest to screwball, but the dialog in many places goes off into space, especially by Lynn's character, Sydney Rowley. He clearly is supposed to carry most of the comedy, but his character is so ultra-flighty, nonsensical and downright dumb at times, that he's just not that funny. Walls plays Brig. Gen. Sir Donald Rowley, and he has a few clever lines, his usual facial expressions and side glances for comedy, and he's a considerable booze hound in this flick.

The rest of the cast all are quite good for their parts, but the screenplay is very choppy, and the technical aspects of the production are weak.

The story has a definite risqué sense about it, with Sydney going after the married Mrs. Barbara Rivers, who is played very well by Marie Lohr. Then he switches to her step daughter, Eileen Rivers (played very well by Lesley Wareing). Later, Sir Donald tries to put the make on Diana Rivers, who is played well by Veronica Rose. And, there's some mystery in a character, Murlow (played by Herbert Lomas), who Is stalking Diana for a very convoluted reason.

The idea for the story was a good one, but the Ben Travers screenplay puts way too much into a 69-minute film. And the dialog comes so fast and furious that one can get lost as scenes change. Finally, Sydney's character is over-the-top oddball so that he's just not very funny. This is one story in which much less time with hair-brained dialog and more with the action and antics could have produced a very funny comedy.

The Plot reminds one of a superb British comedy of 1957 that starred Peter Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount and a great supporting cast. "Your Past is Showing" was a howl throughout, and had minimal dialog. The story of "Fighting Stock" had the same potential - way ahead of the later film. But instead of going with the human foibles it encompassed, the makers chose instead to showcase a non-stop, goofy, rattle-brained Ralph Lynn character.

Still, the pearls of humor from others of the cast provide good comedy. There is good word play with Sir Donald's name and that of his secretary, Duck. He is later used as a decoy, and one can't help but note the wonderful coincidence of names with the cartoon character that Walt Disney created in 1934 - Donald Duck. Remember, this was first a play performed in the 1920s.

Here are the best lines of this film.

Mr. Rivers, "Yes, I'd heard that the cottage had been let to some person." Gen. Sir Donald Rowley, "Person! By gad, if we're gonna start calling each other names, I warn you, because I'm very good at it."

Gen. Rowley, "Are you trying to suggest that I'm trespassing?" Mr. Rivers, "I tell you, sir, that you're poaching."

Mrs. Barbara Rivers, "You're just a hyena." Sydney Rowley, "Oh, not a high one." Barbara, " You come in here, nosing about, seeing what you can find." Eileen, "Well, you encouraged him." Barbara , "Shut up. Go indoors. And you clear out."

Barbara Rivers, "My dear Eileen. You wait until you know men as well as I do." Eileen, "I don't wanna wait all that time."

Gen. Sir Donald, "So I bring you down here for a nice quiet fortnight's fishing, and before you've been here 24 hours, you start foolin' about with your neighbor's wife."

Eileen, "A nice way to bring up your daughter - sending her to bed with a crooner."

Sir Donald, "Duck!" Duck, "Good morning, Sir. Donald." Sir Donald, "You're pretty late." Duck, "The train was late, Sir Donald." Sir Donald, "Well next time, you'd better take yesterday's. What've you brought?"

Eileen, "But don't you think it's best for a girl to know all about the man she's going to marry?" Sydney, "No dear, otherwise she wouldn't marry him."

Sir Donald, "Go to Mr. Sydney's room, and see if he's in. And if he is, you needn't come and tell me." Duck, "And if he's not?" Sir Donald, "Well, how the devil can you come and tell me he's in if he's not?"

Sydney, "Don't you understand, you're the decoy, Duck?"

I found this film so very dated. I just might imagine that someone, at some time, might have gone fishing in a three-piece suit but here are two of them doing it at once in the same small pond, at noon, in JUNE! Later in the day, sitting around idly reading the newspaper, he is in high, stiff collar and bow tie. Did anyone every just hang out around the house dressed like this? The wife has her jewels on and they both look like they will be leaving any minute for a formal party but are actually on their way to bed dressed like this. So unrealistic.

The humor is strained and embarrassing. There is an old fellow who tries to chat up every female he finds and makes some rather forward and almost rude comments to them and about them. He even tries to setup his uncle with a married woman. He trespasses with the greatest of ease. His nervous twitter speaking style gets really irritating very quickly.

Like Amos & Andy, it feels strained and is difficult for some (me, for one) to watch except, maybe, with the sound turned down. This one might get a few more minutes of run time but whenever I decide to hit Stop, I will also hit Delete.

I finished it but it was painful. Be warned.

I saw Fighting Stock again recently and I had forgotten just what a little gem this film is. English farce at its best. The story unfolds rapidly and this, combined with the fast pace of the dialogue means that the viewer never has a moment in which to lose interest. The cast has no weak link - most of these actors cut their teeth in rep and farce and the three male leads Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, and Robertson Hare all worked together many times in theatre before collaborating for the cinema and they have a terrific comedic chemistry together. I was struck by the amount of smut and innuendo in the dialogue considering the date of this film. Some lines could be straight out of the Carry On films that came some 30 or 40 years later. Often a film has a certain amount of padding, by which I mean unnecessary scenes that are placed there to try and turn a short story into a feature film. This is not the case with Fighting Stock - every scene is carefully crafted and serves to introduce a new character or further the plot. There is no dead wood at all. Despite now being more than 75 years old there is so much to recommend this fantastic little comedy which deserves to be more widely known.

Having discovered the wonderfully silly Aldwych farces, full of hope I sat down to watch this - one of the last in the series. What a disappointment - like so many comedy series, they should have quit when they were ahead.

It's not a bad film, in fact it's amusing enough to keep you watching (which you can't often say about 1930s comedies!) It's just so much worse than this team's earlier pictures: CUCKOO IN THE NEST and TURKEY TIME which were no classics but in their own very, very silly way, were genuinely funny. Like a lot of comedy programmes, as the series went on and on and on, the ideas, the originality and the fun gave way to just making a product to bring in a profit.

Those earlier pictures were filmed versions of their tried and trusted stage plays whereas this one was written specifically for the screen. Missing those years responding directly to audience reactions to hone the laughter levels, makes this feel a little it's simply going through the motions.

It's from good stock – Tom Walls directed himself in a Ben Travers non-Aldwych farce but with Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare in attendance as usual and with a gallant band of farceurs backing up. In the main it runs delightfully true to form, however it also has a few awkward moments and flat scenes amidst the brilliance.

Batty uncle Tom and monocled nephew Ralph rent a holiday cottage in an idyllic location, both to do a spot of fishing – one for fish the another for women. They make contact with and simultaneously fall foul of their near neighbour the landowner and his wife and daughter who have some serious problems developing in relation to a relation who is being chased by a manic blackmailer Herbert Lomas. Unflappable wife Marie Lohr takes every ridiculous turn in events in her stride in the same way she did later as Professor Higgins mother in Pygmalion and provides an anchor to the main characters nuttiness. Apart from Walls himself the landowner Hubert Harben has a couple of great lines in here, the best complaining of Walls & Lynn's "rank savagery" after being warned they'd "hang his hide on the doorpost". The scene where 52 year old Walls is trying to bed - no better word for it – the 24 year old Veronica Rose playing the distressed Diana is borderline embarrassing for his continually thwarted hopes, in this case it's just too drawn out and almost ruined the whole film for me. Robertson "pardon my effrontery" Hare played Walls' badly used secretary with his usual endless supply of serious fortitude in the face of such eccentric hostility, even to being threatened at one stage with a "scalping" by his employer.

It has many good almost classic moments of fun, farce and bizarre verbal exchanges throughout but the last few minutes tapered off into laboured slapstick which possibly only attempted to verify the satirical title. I suspect most people would have a real fight on their hands if they come to this cold - I enjoyed it and like to see it again every so often, but then again I've always appreciated this lost art form.