Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure * (1951, Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane, Garry Marsh) – Classic Movie Review 13,093

The zany 1951 British comedy film Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure is the penultimate, very silly series entry starring drag act Arthur Lucan and his wife Kitty McShane.

Director Maclean Rogers’s zany 1951 British comedy film Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure is the penultimate, very silly series entry starring drag act Arthur Lucan and his wife Kitty McShane. It features appearances by a pre-Carry On Peter Butterworth and by Hammer stalwart Michael Ripper.

It’s an extremely daft and fairly slack effort, in which antique shop workers Old Mother Riley (Arthur Lucan) and her daughter Kitty (Lucan’s real-life wife Kitty McShane) discover an ancient treasure chart hidden in an antique bed’s headboard, and, helped by the ghost of Morgan the Pirate (Sebastian Cabot), set off for a remote tropical Caribbean island jungle to find the buried riches. Cue major political correctness problems when the couple get to the island in the South Seas, of course, as the natives celebrate Mother Riley as a tribal queen.

Likeable, reliable co-stars Garry Marsh, Cyril Chamberlain, Sebastian Cabot, Michael Ripper, and Peter Butterworth are a definite help, and provide vintage comedy relief.

Val Valentine does his darndest professional best to carve out another acceptable screenplay for Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane, and at least there are some amusing situations and dialogue, and the comedy story satirising jungle and treasure hunt pictures is something a bit different, though that might be different from good.

Onwards and upwards to the final, 15th series episode: Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952) with Bela Lugosi supporting Lucan. But Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure is Kitty McShane‘s final Mother Riley film. The married couple had separated by the time of production, and McShane’s scenes with Lucan were reportedly shot on separate days. Meanwhile they were touring in separate Old Mother Riley shows. They had a difficult marriage, with rumours of McShane’s many affairs and volatile temperament.

There was a strike over pay during filming led by an extra on the film, dancer Josie Woods.

How about this? All the supposed cannibal tribesman are ex-Oxford graduates who spend their time (in full tribal dress) listening to the cricket on the short wave radio.

English film director Val Guest said British screenwriter Val Valentine (1895–1971)  was ‘a larger-than-life character who won the VC. He was a large lively man, always brimming with ideas, some awful, some of which were very funny.’

The cast are Arthur Lucan as Old Mother Riley, Kitty McShane as Kitty, Garry Marsh as Jim , Cyril Chamberlain as Captain Daincourt, Robert Adams as Chief ‘Stinker’ Carstairs, Roddy Hughes as James Orders, Willer Neal as Harry Benson, Anita D’ray as Estelle, Sebastian Cabot as Morgan the Pirate, Bill Shine as Flying Officer Prang, Peter Butterworth as Steve, Peter Swanwick as Mr Benson, Harry Lane as Slim,  Michael Ripper as Jake, Maria Mercedes as Air Hostess, and Gerald Rex as Ted.

Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure is directed by Maclean Rogers, runs 75 minutes, is made by Oakland Films, is released by Renown, is written by Val Valentine, is shot in black and white by James Wilson, is produced by George Minter, and is scored by Wilfred Burns and George Melachrino.

Arthur Lucan and Kitty McShane as Old Mother Riley and her daughter ‘Kitty’.

Arthur Lucan filmography

Stars on Parade (1936), Old Mother Riley (1937), Kathleen Mavourneen (1937), Old Mother Riley in Paris (1938), Old Mother Riley, MP (1940), Old Mother Riley Joins Up (1940), Old Mother Riley in Society (1940), Old Mother Riley’s Circus (and writer, 1941), Old Mother Riley in Business (1941), Old Mother Riley’s Ghosts (and writer, 1941), Old Mother Riley Overseas (and writer, 1943), Old Mother Riley Detective (and writer, 1943), Old Mother Riley at Home (1945), Old Mother Riley’s New Venture (1949), Old Mother Riley Headmistress (1950), Old Mother Riley’s Jungle Treasure (1951), and Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952).

Arthur Lucan was appearing in Dublin when he met and married the 16-year-old Kitty McShane in 1913.

Lucan died, aged 68, at the Tivoli Theatre, Hull on Monday, 17 May 1954. He collapsed in the wings and died in his dressing room. Lucan’s understudy Roy Rolland took over the role of Old Mother Riley, performing with McShane until her death in 1964.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,093

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