It's difficult to explain why this is so pleasant to watch. It's well made and well acted enough but the story is hardly gripping. It's a bit like having a nice bowl of chicken soup on a chilly afternoon. One thing it isn't though is a comedy: chicken soup maybe but definitely not Duck Soup.
Since this was done on the cheap - indeed cheapness was essentially the only criterion for this, Michael Powell doesn't have any opportunity to do anything particularly interesting with it, he nevertheless does a competent if rather pedestrian job. His characters do actually seem like real people. OK, they're not especially interesting people but true and believable ones; ones you wouldn't object to spending an hour with.
This overall 'niceness' is helped by having a team of very professional actors who actually give performances better than you'd see in some productions from the big studios with proper budgets. The real star of the show however is lovely Claire Luce who is utterly captivating. Whether you're following the story or not, no red-blooded male will be able to take their eyes off her!
I'm sure that comedian Harry Enfield based his Mr Cholmondley-Warner character on Michael Shepley's stuffy Mr Pope. He's every imperial inch, the epitome of the 1930s English gent. This adds a certain unexpected comedy element to this somewhat prosaic yet charming little film.
This was one of the very last 'quota quickies' Julius Hagen's Twickenham Studios were to make before ambitiously embarking on his quest to make Twickenham a rival to Gaumont-British and the big Hollywood outfits. No longer would he be simply making the cheapest possible product which the likes of RKO and Universal were obliged to purchase. Sadly for him, the economic conditions of the time couldn't be more wrong resulting in his grand plans going down in flames - quite literally since his studio shortly burned down.
