Just My Luck ** (1933, Ralph Lynn, Winifred Shotter, Davy Burnaby, Robertson Hare) – Classic Movie Review 11,178

A shy teacher takes over the running of a hotel in the 1933 British black and white farcical comedy film Just My Luck, directed by Jack Raymond and starring Ralph Lynn, Winifred Shotter, Davy Burnaby and Robertson Hare.

The screenplay is written by Ben Travers based on H F Maltby’s 1932 Aldwych farce Fifty-Fifty, adapted from the French play Azaïs by Louis Verneuil and Georges Berr.

Robertson Hare (1891–1979).

The cast are Ralph Lynn as David Blake, Winifred Shotter as Peggy Croft, Davy Burnaby as Sir Charles Croft, Robertson Hare as Trigg, Vera Pearce as Lady Croft, Frederick Burtwell as Stromboli and Phyllis Clare as Babs, with Lew Stone as self.

Unusually, there is no involvement from actor, producer and director Tom Walls, who directed all but two of the films of the 12 stage Aldwych farces and also starred in many of the film adaptations.

It is shot at British and Dominions Studios, Elstree, Hertfordshire, England.

Just My Luck is directed by Jack Raymond, runs 77 minutes, is made by Herbert Wilcox Productions and British & Dominions Film Corporation, is released by Woolf & Freedman Film Service (W & F) (1933) (UK), is written by Ben Travers, based on H F Maltby’s 1932 Aldwych farce Fifty-Fifty, is shot in black and white by Cyril Bristow and Freddie Young, is produced by Herbert Wilcox, scored by Lew Stone (music arranger / orchestrator) and designed by Lawrence P Williams.

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 films 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 11,178

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Winifred Shotter plays Peggy Croft.