The Love Match *** (1955, Arthur Askey, Glenn Melvyn, Thora Hird, Shirley Eaton, James Kenney, Robb Wilton) – Classic Movie Review 3259

Director David Paltenghi’s boisterous, lovely old 1955 comedy stars Arthur Askey and Glenn Melvyn as Bill Brown and Wally Binns, two English North-country football-loving railway workers. They get up to their ears in trouble after racing their engine home to get to a match on time, ‘borrowing’ money from a football holiday fund to pay a fine and getting robbed of £50. However, soccer fans club together to help them.

With a screenplay by Geoffrey Orme based on a play by star Glenn Melvyn, who also wrote additional dialogue, this modest but brisk and definitely entertaining farce is all very rumbustiously done. It helps enormously that there is a most engaging, on-form cast, including Thora Hird as Bill’s wife and Shirley Eaton as his daughter he hopes will save the day by winning a dance contest. Meanwhile his son Percy (James Kenney) is about to make his debut for United.

It is very amiable stuff, and, perhaps surprisingly, the ancient gags still seem funny, certainly as put across by this vintage cast. It also stars Robb Wilton, Edward Chapman, William Franklyn, Anthea Askey, Patricia Hayes and Maurice Kaufmann.

Also in the cast are Danny Ross, Derek Kirby, Russell Waters, Peter Swanwick, Vi Stevens, Jill Adams, Dorothy Blythe, Ben Williams, Reginald Hearne, George Hirst, Iris Vandeleur, Sydney Bromley, June Martin, Leonard Williams, Richard Ford and Isabel George.

The teams in the football matches are Bolton Wanderers, Charlton Athletic and Cardiff City.

Shirley Eaton, for ever Jill Masterson in Goldfinger (1964), celebrates her 79th birthday on 12 January 2016. She was also in Doctor in the House (1954), The Love Match (1955), Panic in the Parlor (1956), Three Men in a Boat (1956), Your Past Is Showing (1957), Doctor at Large (1957), Carry On Sergeant (1958), Carry On Nurse (1959), Ten Little Indians (1965) and The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968).

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3259

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