His Lordship *** (1932, dir Michael Powell) – Classic Movie Review 1258

Director Michael Powell’s eighth film, made in 1932 when he was an unknown director, is a musical comedy with a surprisingly complex plot about Bert Gibbs (Jerry Verno), a cheery Cockney plumber who is also a peer after inheriting a title from his father and becoming Lord Thornton Heath, the Soviet movie star Ilya Myona (Janet Megrew) he meets up with and implies to his mother that he’s engaged to, and a couple of  dubious Russian type conmen. Eventually, there’s a happy ending when Bert’s girl Leninia (Polly Ward) wins him back.

Regarded as one of the better ‘quota quickies’ of the time, Powell’s bright and engaging movie was produced to satisfy the production requirements of the 1928 Cinematograph Act. This long-lost film, unseen for 65 years, was unearthed in 1997 in Cheshire by a private collector who thought he owned a quite different, well-known movie. It was put onto safety film and shown in 2000 at the NFT, where it proved popular with audiences as a camp classic.

It has a lot of historical interest. Ralph Smart’s screenplay is based on the novel The Right Honourable by Oliver Madox Hueffer. Future star Valerie Hobson is among the cast, making her debut. The cinematography is by top director of photography Geoffrey Faithfull.

Nicely joined with the plot, the musical numbers are evidently and satisfyingly being photographed and recorded simultaneously. It’s filmed at the old Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.

Astonishingly, as he’s one of British cinema’s biggest names, ten of Powell’s films are still missing. He made seven films in 1932, after his debut in 1931.

Hobson appeared as Baroness Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein (1935) taking over from Mae Clarke who played it in the original Frankenstein (1931). The latter half of the 1940s saw her in her two most memorable roles: as the adult Estella in David Lean’s 1946 Great Expectations and as the virtuous Edith D’Ascoyne in the 1949 Kind Hearts and Coronets.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1258

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