When We Are Married **** (1943, Sydney Howard, Raymond Huntley, Olga Lindo) – Classic Movie Review 10,435

Director Lance Comfort’s 1943 comedy When We Are Married is a very welcome film version of the appealing 1938 J B Priestley English Northcountry play about three sanctimoniously respectable Victorian silver wedding couples – The Helliwells, the Soppitts and the Parkers – who gather to celebrate their 25th anniversary of their marriage on the same day. But they turn out not to have been wed after all and have been living in sin for 25 years, because the young cleric who married them was under-qualified. It is time for shock and then to take stock.

The lovely vintage British play, effectively mixing gags with serious moments, makes a delightfully played, gleefully handled, very amusing film that boasts a high tally of laughs.

The expert ensemble, non-star cast help to keep it engaging and entertaining throughout.

The cast are Sydney Howard as Henry Ormondroyd, Raymond Huntley as Albert Parker, Olga Lindo as Maria Helliwell, Marian Spencer as Annie Parker, Ethel Coleridge as Clara Soppitt, Lloyd Pearson as Joe Helliwell, Ernest Butcher as Herbert Soppitt, Barry Morse as Gerald Forbes, Lesley Brook as Nancy Holmes, Marjorie Rhodes as Mrs Northup, Charles Victor as Mr Northup, Cyril Smith as Fred Dyson, George Carney as Landlord, Lydia Sherwood as Lottie Grady, Patricia Hayes as Ruby Birtle, A Bromley Davenport, Charles Doe, Charles Mortimer, and Terry Randall.

Patricia Hayes originated the role of Ruby Birtle in J B Priestley’s 1938 play When We Are Married and played the character in three screen adaptations: the TV movie When We Are Married (1938), When We Are Married (1943) and the TV movie When We Are Married (1949), which also features Joan Hickson as Mrs Northrop. Patricia Hayes started in films right back in 1936 after graduating from RADA in 1928.

When We Are Married is directed by Lance Comfort, runs 98 minutes, is made by British National Films, is released by Anglo-American Film Corporation (1943) (UK), is written by Austin Melford and Barbara K Emary, based on the J B Priestley play, is shot in black and white by James Wilson and Arthur Grant (camera operator), is produced by John Baxter, is scored by Kennedy Russell and is designed by R Holmes Paul.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,435

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