Stormy Weather

Tom Walls has just taken over as Chairman of a chain store and is inspecting the branches. He is prepared to promote the dull but efficient Robertson Hare and fire the incompetent Ralph Lynn. He orders them both to London, where his wife, Yvonne Arnaud, has just discovered that her first husband, Andrews Englemann, whom she thought dead, is alive, has kidnapped her to a Chinese laundry and is about to blackmail Mr. Walls.

It's a prime example of Aldwych farce transferred to the screen with expert opening up and lots of racy and insulting lines written by Ben Travers and delivered by the stage veterans who spoke them on the boards. I cannot but help think that there was a good deal more racy behavior on stage than in this screen adaptation, the censors being tougher on screen than within the proscenium arch. However, there's plenty to delight in the delivery of this farceurs: Walls' smug delivery, Lynn's frantic incompetence, Hare uncomprehending dullard and Arnaud's French double-entendre double-takes.... and to offend any modern fifth-wave feminist audience.