Treasure Hunt ** (1952, Jimmy Edwards, Martita Hunt, Athene Seyler, Naunton Wayne) – Classic Movie Review 11,002

Director John Paddy Carstairs’s 1952 black and white film Treasure Hunt is a madcap comedy with a gaggle of ageing relatives searching for their family’s nest-egg, which has mysteriously gone missing. It is based on a play by Molly Keane [M J Farrell] and John Perry, with the screenplay written by the producer, Anatole de Grunwald.

The eccentric family of the late Sir Roderick Lyall (Jimmy Edwards) gathers at his ancestral Irish mansion Ballyroden Hall for the reading of the will. But, after all the debts are paid, the only asset is the mansion. So, prompted by family doctor Mr Walsh (Miles Malleson), the hard-up owners of Ballyroden Hall try to run it as a guest house to bring in funds.

But, while half the family supports the idea, Uncle Hercules (Jimmy Edwards) and Consuelo (Athene Seyler) try to sabotage the effort to raise money, just as the first paying guests, Eustace Mills (Naunton Wayne), Mrs Cleghorn-Thomas (June Clyde) and daughter Yvonne (Mara Lane), arrive for their holiday. Meanwhile, crazy old Aunt Anna Rose (Martita Hunt) claims that she has mislaid a fortune in jewels.

Treasure Hunt is a standard, conventional British Fifties farce, but likeable and lively enough, and enlivened by some fine characterisations from a rather splendid cast of the day, especially Jimmy Edwards, Athene Seyler, Naunton Wayne, Miles Malleson and, most particularly, Martita Hunt as an imperious old grouch, Aunt Anna Rose.

Also in the cast are June Clyde, Susan Stephen, Brian Worth, Mara Lane, Maire O’Neill, Toke Townley, Alfie Bass, Hamlyn Benson, Marguerite Brennan, Wilfrid Caithness, Diana Campbell, Sheila Carty, Bee Duffell, Irene Handl, Fred Johnson, John Kelly, Kenneth Kove, Roger Maxwell, John McDarby, Nella Occleppo, Pat O’Connor, Kendrick Owen, James Page, Tony Quinn, Michael Ripper, and Joseph Tomelty.

It is shot at Warner Brothers First National Studios, Teddington Studios, Teddington, Middlesex, England.

Jimmy Edwards was married to Valerie Seymour for 11 years (1958–1969; divorced) but in the 1970s, to his annoyance, he was outed as gay. He was a lifelong Conservative and in the 1964 UK general election stood for Paddington North, without success, leading him to introduce himself as Professor James Edwards, MA, Cantab, Failed MP.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,002

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