FULL OF COMEDY

Evening Star, Issue 21715, 9 May 1934, Page 1

FULL OF COMEDY

•THIS IS THE LIFE’ FOR ST. JAMES By no means the least distinction of the British Dominions release ‘ This is the Life,’ coming to the St. James ou Friday, is its discovery of Binnie Hale as a comedienne. After watching this artist’s versatile creation of a Cockney “nouveau riche,” one finds it hard to understand why she should have been permitted for so long to hide her obvious screen talent under the stage bushel. Miss Hale lias now definitely arrived as a first-rate screen comedienne, and co-starred with her is Gordon Harker, in a role ideally suited to his own inimitable drollery, and which blends most hilariously witli the ripe comedy of his partner. They are seen as the Tuttles, proprietors of a country tea garden, who unexpectedly inherit a fortune, become the Tuttelles, and launch heartily into the .social whirl. The adventures of tlie Tuttelles are such as one would expect of a pair doomed to a champagne diet while longing for the humble ale. Their main grievance is the attention of a couple of thugs who claim a share in their inheritance, which leads to the hiring of a prize-fighter as a personal escort. It is around this ludicrous “ faux pas,” together with their amiable brawlings with the thugs and their tiltiugs with the boozy pugilist, that niost of the .fun revolves. The comedy and spectacular highlight is reached in the mammoth party given by the Tuttelles designed to impress Mayfair. Here the hosts join forces in an operatic vocal effort, and nothing more fantastically ludicrous has been heard in any British film Jo date. This scene is 'rounded off by .the inter- ; ventibn of the thugs- and; the incapa-‘ bility of the hired prize-fighter to cope with the situation. In addition to the stars, who carry most of the show ou, their own most capable shoulders, the comedy is garnished by the breezy humour of Jack Barty as' the alcoholic prize-fighter and the b-rlesque of Ben Weldon and Percy, Parsons as the gangsters. On the romantic side Betty Astell and Ray Milland present pleasing cameos of a delightfully constant pair of lovers, while. Charles, Heslop scores in the role, of a fussy family lawyer.