A Cup of Kindness ** (1934, Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, Robertson Hare, Dorothy Hyson, Claude Hulbert ) – Classic Movie Review 11,180

A Cup of Kindness (1934, Ralph Lynn, Tom Walls).

Director Tom Walls’s 1934 British black and white farcical comedy film A Cup of Kindness is based on a Ben Travers screenplay from his own 1929 Aldwych stage farce that has dated more than some about a callow couple – the son and daughter of two feuding families – announcing their upcoming marriage against their folks’ wishes and being charged with the crime of fraud.

Never mind the creaky camera techniques and faded jokes, the estimable players (Tom Walls as Fred Tutt, Ralph Lynn as Charlie Tutt, Robertson Hare as Ernest Ramsbottom, Dorothy Hyson as Betty Ramsbottom and Claude Hulbert as Stanley Tutt) are on excellent form in nimble displays of buffoonery.

It includes a very funny musical pantomime dream sequence flashback to show the film’s characters re-enacting their conflicts way back in the Stone Age.

Also in the cast are Eva Moore as Mrs Tutt, Marie Wright as Mrs Ramsbottom, Veronica Rose as Tilly Wynn, Gordon James as Nicholas Ramsbottom, D A Clarke-Smith and J Fisher White, with Graham Moffatt his debut appearance as Choirboy and Mary Brough.

It has four of the same cast members as the play.

It is shot at Gainsborough Studios, England.

A Cup of Kindness is directed by Tom Walls, runs 81 minutes, is made by Gainsborough Pictures, is released by Gaumont British Distributors (1934) (UK), is written by Ben Travers, based on the Aldwych farce by Ben Travers, is shot in black and white by Philip Tannura, is produced by Michael Balcon, scored by Bretton Byrd and designed by Alfred Junge.

The series of 12 stage Aldwych farces, nine written by Ben Travers, were staged more or less continuously from 1923 to 1933 at the Aldwych Theatre, London. Most of the farces, and other Travers works, were filmed during the 1930s, with many of the actors from the plays. Tom Walls directed all but two of the films.

The ten adaptations made on film of the original Aldwych farces are: Rookery Nook [One Embarrassing Night] (1930), Plunder (1931), A Night Like This (1932), Thark (1932), A Cuckoo in the Nest (1933), Turkey Time (1933), Just My Luck (1933), A Cup of Kindness (1934), Dirty Work (1934), and Marry the Girl (1935).

Other filmed farces by Travers, with one or more of the Aldwych stars, are: The Chance of a Night Time (1931; based on The Dippers), Fighting Stock (1935), Foreign Affaires (1935; original screenplay), Pot Luck (1936; loosely based on A Night Like This), Second Best Bed (1938; based on a Travers story), and Banana Ridge (1941).

On stage, Rookery Nook has been regularly revived and Plunder has had several revivals.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,180

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