I Thank You

Really enjoyed it. Cheap, cheerful, entertaining so the highbrow can get stuffed!

Arthur Askey's name is pretty much a seal of greatness, and this movie is no exception. If you don't mind his usual corny jokes, you're in for a dream ride with this one. Rivalling Askey in the comedic department is a young, unnamed girl who may well have been the English Gracie Allen with her charming voice and illogical logic. Sadly though, her character was never named, and she does not appear in any credits list for the film.

Askey and co. need a backer for their show, and the usual brass, Lady Randall, won't comply - so they set out for her house to pretend to be the new hired help, and end up getting a lot more than they bargained for! A great movie with a laugh around every corner.

More low-brow humour featuring Arthur Askey in women's clothing. I Thank You is clearly trying to emulate similar 'zany' American movies of the era, but tries far too hard with woefully threadbare material. Even Will Hay's regular foils Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott fail to lift the quality of the humour.

Set in London early in World War II, this silly yet charming film is about a group of vaudeville entertainers who are hoping to persuade one time backer Lady Randall to fund a new show – something she is disinclined to do. In an effort to speak to her privately about this, Arthur and Stinker apply for – and get – jobs in Lady Randall's house as a butler and a cook. As the cook, Arthur dresses in drag and actually is quite funny in that disguise. Of course, neither Arthur or Stinker can cook and there is an amusing routine with the cook in the house next door. Moore Marriott plays Lady Randall's nutty father. His batty old man routine got pretty boring and was my least favorite part of the movie. Given the general acclaim other reviewers hold him in, I may need to view more Marriott films to test my initial impression. What I particularly liked about the movie were the novelty songs such as "Oh Johnny Teach Me to Dance", "Hello to the Sun", "Waiting at the Church" and "Let's Get Hold of Hitler". In addition to Askey, the other performers evidently were also former Music Hall entertainers. I liked this one and will likely watch it again.

`Big-hearted Arthur Askey' was a major British star of cinema, TV, and even, much earlier, Music Hall. On the evidence of `I Thank You' (a catch-phrase pronounced Aye Theng Yew) he was a comical little man with great timing but I just couldn't get a laugh out of this movie. And its not simply a case of what made people smile more than fifty years ago not being relevant today. A couple of nights previously I had watched an even older film, `Nothing Sacred' and found it absolutely hilarious.

`I Thank You' was made & set during the Second World War. It opens & closes in the London Underground where the population went to escape the German air raids, includes a couple of novelty songs plus performances from Richard `Stinker' Murdoch who became a top radio script-writer and Kathleen Harrison who always seemed to play a maid until she had great success in the fifties in The Huggetts series of films.

It's hard to recommend `I Thank You' which is often frantic and farcical; the best I can say is that it is mercifully short at seventy-odd minutes.