No Lady

There just may be some (very) senior citizens still alive in Blackpool who remember the film crew at large on the front making this zany comedy (described by Rachel Low as a "badly directed, under-rehearsed and distasteful film") that for much of it's running time looks like (and probably is) a silent film with an effects track rather than a true talkie.

The enemy agents our hero tangles with come from a foreign country called Ptomania, pronounced the same way as the country Adenoid Hynkel later became the great dictator of.

Just watched No Lady on Talking Pictures and I must confess that I enjoyed it. True the story is silly but the film was far better than I expected. There was little evidence that it was made just four years into the talkies and Lupino Lane was a superb acrobatic comedian. This production did him justice.

Henpecked Lupino Lane, Lola Hunt, and his five stepchildren go on a holiday to Blackpool. There, he is mistaken for a spy from Ptomania, whose associates plan to crash the British glider in the competition, winning fifty-thousand-pound prize for Ptomania.

It's all an excuse for long sequences shot wild -- that is, without sound -- in which Lane performs his amazing acrobatics and slapstick routines around the holiday town. Those sequences are quite good, but the cheapness of the production, the poor sound track, and the slapdash writing don't make this particularly good. It reminds me of the proposition that Buster Keaton made to the higher-ups at MGM, to make silent films with talking sequences. I expect the scenarios would have been better than this mishmosh of sequences from THE ADVENTURER, cross-dressing, and puns. Still, it's always fun to see Lane run up a wall. With Sari Maritza and Wallace Lupino.

The movie itself is really only about a 5, but for me, when Lupino Lane really gets going, he can do no wrong.

For several years now, I have found myself bored to death over movies that are directed to be more concerned with presenting their "story" than with what they DO with the narrative. Most movies are written by a bunch of hack writers anyway, and few stories have any depth or value to them that can keep me engaged. RATHER, I am interested in any movie that allows truly talented actors to show off their skills.

Now it turns out that Lupino Lane is as good an acrobat as Buster Keaton, and probably as good a pantomimist and dancer as Chaplin or Lloyd. So here I am delighted to find a featurette that really displays his talents—and in a talking picture while the actor is still at his prime, no less.

Not that it couldn't have been even better, but... you can't have everything (although I'll never know why).

Fortunately, there is enough innocent silliness, cartoonishness, pantomime, acrobatics and else at play here, and briskly moving along at a pace to keep my interest.

If you don't know Lupino Lane, you might want to start with a wonderful compilation of clips from his movies, with super music, on the DVD "SlapHappy: Vol 1 (3 Funnymen...)".

If you find those clips amazing, astounding and hilarious, then you should try out some complete silents. After that, if you, like I, cannot possibly get too much Lupino Lane, then you should check out this movie (you can buy it at Amazon UK).

I'm inserting reviews for all films I'v seen that lack one, this rarity has recently been shown on talking pictures, so more people will have a chance to see it, possibly someone will write a more favorable review? well here is mine... Staring, directed and co-written by Lupino Lane, he plays a henpecked stepfather who when holidaying in Blackpool is mistaken for an enemy spy, in a plot involving the sabotage of a radio controlled glider contest! The plot is as irrelevant as it is unlikely, this film is simply an excuse to showcase it's star, it all comes down to is he funny? Well on this evidence Mr Lane joins the long list of successful stage comedians whose talents did not translate to the silver screen, not awful, but of curio value only.