My Wife’s Lodger *** (1952, Dominic Roche, Olive Sloane, Leslie Dwyer, Diana Dors) – Classic Movie Review 11,120

Dominic Roche and Diana Dors in My Wife’s Lodger (1952).

With the Rank Organisation £18 million in debt, the studio closed their Charm School for young actors and made Diana Dors redundant in September 1950. But Dors’s film career started to improve when she was cast in a star support role as Eunice Higginbotham in the 1952 British low-budget comedy film My Wife’s Lodger (1952), directed by Maurice Elvey, and starring Dominic Roche, Olive Sloane and Leslie Dwyer. The farcical comedy proves funny and nicely, exuberantly performed.

The humorous screenplay by Stafford Dickens is based on the 1950 play My Wife’s Lodger written by the film’s star, British actor and playwright Dominic Roche (1902–1972), about a soldier called Willie Higginbotham (Roche) who returns home after the Second World War to find a spiv lodger, Roger the Lodger (Leslie Dwyer), has established himself in his place. And of course Higginbotham’s bombshell of a daughter Eunice (Dors) and his wife Maggie (Olive Sloane) are paying most of their attention to the lodger. Roche’s ‘North country farce’ enjoyed a successful London West End run in 1950, in which he also starred.

Filming took place in May 1952 while Dors was appearing in the stage revue Rendezvous at night. It proved the first of three in a row films Dors made for Elvey, followed by The Great Game (1953) and Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary (1953). Some scenes involving Dors were shot in two versions, wearing more revealing clothes in the export version.

The cast are Dominic Roche as Willie Higginbotham, Olive Sloane as Maggie Higginbotham, Leslie Dwyer as Roger the Lodger, Diana Dors as Eunice Higginbotham, Alan Sedgwick as Tex, Vincent Dowling as Norman Higginbotham, Vi Kaley as Mother-in-Law, Martin Wyldeck as Policeman, David Hannaford as Vernon, Ilena Sylva as Vernon’s Mother, Ronald Adam as Doctor, Wally Patch as Sergeant, Derek Tansley as Deserter, Alastair Hunter as Lance Corporal, Toke Townley as Soldier, Fred Griffiths as Driver, and Harry Locke as Passer-by.

My Wife’s Lodger is on a DVD double bill with Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary.

The sound films of Maurice Elvey: The School for Scandal (1930), Potiphar’s Wife (1931), Sally in Our Alley (1931), A Honeymoon Adventure (1931), Frail Women (1932), In a Monastery Garden (1932), The Marriage Bond (1932), The Water Gipsies (1932), Diamond Cut Diamond (1932), The Lodger (1932), The Lost Chord (1933), I Lived with You (1933), This Week of Grace (1933), Soldiers of the King (1933), Love, Life and Laughter (1934), Road House (1934), Lily of Killarney (1934), The Clairvoyant (1935), The Tunnel (1935), Heat Wave (1935), Spy of Napoleon (1936), The Man in the Mirror (1936), A Romance in Flanders (1937), Who Killed John Savage? (1937), Melody and Romance (1937), Change for a Sovereign (1937), Lightning Conductor (1938), Who Goes Next? (1938), The Return of the Frog (1938), Sword of Honour (1939), Sons of the Sea (1939), Under Your Hat (1940), The Spider (1940), For Freedom (1940), Room for Two (1940), Salute John Citizen (1942), The Lamp Still Burns (1943), Medal for the General (1944), Strawberry Roan (1945), Beware of Pity (1946), The Third Visitor (1951), The Late Edwina Black (1951), My Wife’s Lodger (1952), The Great Game (1953), Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary (1953), House of Blackmail (1953), The Harassed Hero (1954), What Every Woman Wants (1954), The Gay Dog (1954), The Happiness of Three Women (1954), You Lucky People (1955), Room in the House (1955), Fun at St. Fanny’s (1956), Dry Rot (1956), Stars in Your Eyes (1956), Second Fiddle (1957).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,120

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