Old Mother Riley *** (1937, Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane, Barbara Everest) – Classic Movie Review 10,780

The 1937 British comedy film Old Mother Riley is the first of the 15-movie Old Mother Riley comedy series, with Arthur Lucan funny in drag as the loud elderly Irish washerwoman and Lucan’s real-wife Kitty McShane confusingly cast as Riley’s daughter Kitty.

Director Oswald Mitchell’s 1937 British black and white comedy film Old Mother Riley is the first of the 15-movie Old Mother Riley comedy series, which ran until 1952 and Mother Riley Meets the Vampire, with Arthur Lucan in drag as the loud elderly Irish washerwoman and Lucan’s real-wife Kitty McShane confusingly cast as Riley’s daughter Kitty.

Music-hall star Lucan is funny with his broad, but gentle performance in this classic comedy character, happily never once suggesting that he is really a woman or that he wants to humiliate women through his comedy.

Also in the cast are Barbara Everest as Mrs Briggs, Patrick Ludlow as Edwin Briggs, J Hubert Leslie as Captain Lawson, Edith Sharpe as Matilda Lawson, Syd Crossley as Butler, Edgar Driver as Bill Jones, Dorothy Vernon as Aggie Sparks, Charles Carson, Charles Paton, Charles Sewell, G H Mulcaster, Zoe Wynn, and Balliol & Tiller.

Writers John Argyle (original story) and Con West (screenplay) concoct a plot where Mother Riley and her daughter Kitty try to stop disinherited relatives’ plans to overturn the terms of a will where a wealthy match magnate leaves his fortune to his family on condition that they take in the first person they see selling his matches. Enter Old Mother Riley, daughter Kitty, and comic chaos.

The cheaply made, very profitable film was based on Lucan and McShane’s music hall sketch The Matchseller. It cost £2,000 and took six weeks to shoot. It was a hit and Old Mother Riley in Paris (1938) followed quickly after.

Old Mother Riley is directed by Oswald Mitchell, runs 75 minutes, is made by Hope-Bell Film Productions and Butcher’s Film Service, is released by Butcher’s Film Service (1937) (UK), is written by Con West, based on an original story by John Argyle, is shot in black and white by Jack Parker, is produced by Norman Hope-Bell, is scored by Horace Sheldon (musical director), and is designed by Frank Carter.

It is made at Stoll Studios, Cricklewood, London.

Old Mother Riley (1937, Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane).

English music hall comedian Arthur Towle was appearing in Dublin in 1913 when he met and married the 16-year-old Kitty McShane. The couple became a successful double act and were popular with a sketch called Bridget’s Night Out, the first time Arthur wore drag, prompting him to develop the character of Old Mother Riley. He changed his name to Lucan, and they performed on stage as Lucan and McShane. and were featured in the 1934 Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium.

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).

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 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,780

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