MAGICAL FUN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22592, 23 December 1938, Page 5

MAGICAL FUN

It may have been thought that Hollywood is the only place which can make crazy comedies. The British production “Alf’s Button Afloat,” which will begin at the Civic to-day, will prove the contrary. The humour of this film is broad, robust, and true to the tradition of the English musichall, but it is excellent fun for all who are in the mood. Better team-work and more hilarious clowning nave seldom, if ever, been seen in a British comedy than that contributed by the so-called Crazy Gang (consisting -of the combined teams of Flanagan and Allen, Nervo and Knox, and Naughtori and Gold). Definitely they are England’s answer to the Marx Brothex-s and the Ritz Brothers, and, by British standards of humour, just as comical. For more

The Crazy Gang in “All’s Button Afloat”

than an hour they maintain the high pressure of their nonsense, and it would, be a dull person who could sit without laughing through most of their sallies. Alf’s button, that miraculous morsel of Aladdin’s lamp which retains its power to summon the all-powerful genie, has been used as a basis for film farce before. On this occasion it is rubbed into service by one of the Crazy Gang, who finds it attached to his tunic after he and his friends have enlisted in the Marines. Thereafter the possibilities for fantastic farce are boundless, and the film makes full use of them. By means of the genie of the lamn the gang stock their ship with crates of beer and armies of beautiful girls; they transform a court-martial at which they are the accused into a bonus presentation ceremony with full military honours; and then, having secured the recall of the fleet from manoeuvres. they walk off with the contents of the Bank of England, buy a country mansion, organise a hunt, and attend it mounted on circus horses. So it goes on—all very foolish, of course, from one point of view—but nevertheless very amusing. Naturally, the Crazy Gang dominate the picture, but they have a couple of good butts for their comedy in Wally Patch and Peter Gawthorne; and the urbane Alastair Sim does well as the overworked Slave of the Lamp. It was a particularly bright touch to have him transform‘himself into a Chicago gangster, after his first visit to the movies! The London “Daily Mirror” critic wrote of “Alf’s Button Afloat”: “Gross liberties have been taken with Alf's well-worn button, but the grosser the liberty, the faster the fun. And this film serves to introduce Britain’s newest glamour girl in the person of the noisy Mr Bud Flanagan. _ The whole show is pretty near a riot with the gang going to strange places with the aid of the relic from Aladdin’s wonderful lamp. Highest of many high spots is when the gang organises a ship’s concert and are magically provided with grand opera voices.”

June Lockhart, daughter of Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, will make her screen debut as their daughter in M-G-M’s “A Christmas Carol.” The Lockharts will play Mr, Mrs, and Belinda Cratchit.

Edward Small is trying to borrow Robert Donat, now in Hollywood, to star in his remake of “The Man in the Iron Mask.” Small produced “The Count of Monte Cristo,” Donat’s only Hollywood film.