An antique period piece, but with quite a bit of nostalgic charm for anyone who remembers the PG Wodehouse/Ben Travers era of English comedy writing. However creaky the film, it is good to see contemporary comedians such as Leslie Henson and Robertson Hare at their peak. And I never before realised that Frances Day really did have considerable screen presence.
8 Reviews
Charming, funny period piece
dfarmbrough15 July 2001
This film might be seen by today's film buffs as an early showcase for the work of directors Michael Powell (who storylined it) and Charles Frend (who edited it), but it really should be taken at face value. It's a bit of fun, having a laugh at the expense of the moral minority who even in 1935 were starting to annoy the cinematic industry. There's grand performances from Leslie Henson and Robertson Hare, who went on to play the Chauffer in The Young Ones. It's worth watching just to see how films were made in 1935 and to see how much influence the night club scene had on television's Jeeves & Wooster, where Charles Frend's montage of champagne filled glasses, bright city lights and drunken toffs show how much can be achieved with a minimal budget.
A proper 1930s comedy musical!
1930s_Time_Machine10 April 2024
Just when you thought you'd seen all the good 1930s musicals you discover this fabulous fun film. Whilst it's not quite FOOTLIGHT DAMES OF 1933 level, it's got that similar feel and a million times better than the lame WB musicals of the late 30s.
Like DAMES, the plot concerns a group of killjoys called The Purity League who are taught the error of their ways when they encounter a sassy sexy showgirl. Over in America the real Catholic Legion of Decency had just imposed the puritanical censorship of the Hays Code on all of Hollywood's output so it was left to England to keep the flag of saucy fun flying. Yes, we could still make silly and irreverent films with very scantily clad chorus girls as this demonstrates.
This is an absolute joy. The story is engaging and still genuinely funny all these years later. The script is witty and the acting is natural with likeable characters you feel you can get to know. The cast are perfect: Robertson Hare is hilarious, music hall star Leslie Henson is fantastic - what a shame he made so few pictures and Frances Day is stunningly sexy with a refreshingly real personality. Coupled with dynamic direction and exceptionally high production values, this is an absolute must for fans of those original Warner musicals.
Why the production is such high quality is because of 'sibling rivalry.' In 1935, Michael Balcon ran both Gaumont-British and Gainsborough. At Gaumont, Victor Saville (who actually founded Gainsborough with Balcon and Graham Cutts a decade earlier) made the classy, big budget musicals such as those with the world's most beautiful actress (Jessie Matthews) whereas Graham Cutts at Gainsborough made the B movies. Cutts wanted to show Balcon that he too could make pictures just as classy as those his former colleague made down the road at Gaumont and really succeeded with this....even without the divinity that was Miss Matthews!
Like DAMES, the plot concerns a group of killjoys called The Purity League who are taught the error of their ways when they encounter a sassy sexy showgirl. Over in America the real Catholic Legion of Decency had just imposed the puritanical censorship of the Hays Code on all of Hollywood's output so it was left to England to keep the flag of saucy fun flying. Yes, we could still make silly and irreverent films with very scantily clad chorus girls as this demonstrates.
This is an absolute joy. The story is engaging and still genuinely funny all these years later. The script is witty and the acting is natural with likeable characters you feel you can get to know. The cast are perfect: Robertson Hare is hilarious, music hall star Leslie Henson is fantastic - what a shame he made so few pictures and Frances Day is stunningly sexy with a refreshingly real personality. Coupled with dynamic direction and exceptionally high production values, this is an absolute must for fans of those original Warner musicals.
Why the production is such high quality is because of 'sibling rivalry.' In 1935, Michael Balcon ran both Gaumont-British and Gainsborough. At Gaumont, Victor Saville (who actually founded Gainsborough with Balcon and Graham Cutts a decade earlier) made the classy, big budget musicals such as those with the world's most beautiful actress (Jessie Matthews) whereas Graham Cutts at Gainsborough made the B movies. Cutts wanted to show Balcon that he too could make pictures just as classy as those his former colleague made down the road at Gaumont and really succeeded with this....even without the divinity that was Miss Matthews!
"I promise to reform and never be good again"
planktonrules12 April 2019
When the story begins, Lord Pye and his friend, Rupert Boddy, are at a meeting of the local Purity League...an organization that is basically against anything that smacks of fun. The pair are appointed to go to a big meeting of the League...but instead of attending the conference, the pair run amok having a great time in London. Pye, in particular, has fun drinking and carousing with a lovely young cabaret singer...and he needs to be careful, since he is a married man. What's to come of all this? See the film.
This is an old fashioned film that manages to still entertain. Not a brilliant film but a fun one.
This is an old fashioned film that manages to still entertain. Not a brilliant film but a fun one.
Amusing Gainsborough comedy
wilvram12 June 2022
A rare chance to see the almost forgotten Leslie Henson and why he was such a popular star of his day. He is funny throughout this typically frothy comedy of the time which also spotlights the kind of entertainment to be seen in contemporary West End nightclubs. Robertson Hare and the supremely bombastic Alfred Drayton are on good form too, though the latter has little to do, while Frances Day is effervescent and fun. In actuality England didn't go in much for the likes of Purity Leagues, which reflects the story's origins from a German play.
Could this humorless hodgepodge be a "quota quickie?"
SimonJack7 April 2020
"Oh, Daddy" is one of the many "B" movies cranked out in England during the 1930s. It's an example of what came to be known as "quota quickies," to satisfy requirements of the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927. All aspects of this production are second-rate. The screenplay, direction, camera work and editing are not good. And the cast is all lesser known actors. The only ones known much beyond the 1930s are a couple of the supporting cast - Marie Lohr and Robertson Hare.
None of the leads had the talent to make it big or last in movies -- even as supporting actors. Leslie Henson, who plays Lord Wilfred Pye, couldn't shed his silent film exaggerations, and he quickly becomes irksome in this film. He didn't have the looks, voice or skill to dance. This was his last lead role and the last film he was in for nearly 20 years.
Frances Day, as Benita de Lys, had the looks and was passable as an actress. But her singing voice wasn't very good on film. Day wasn't even British. She was born in New Jersey, nee Frances Schenk. At age 16, she was in a stage chorus line. When she was 19, she traveled to England where she married a promoter and began a nightclub career as a cabaret dancer and singer. After "Oh, Daddy," Day made only half a dozen more films in the 1930s, mostly forgotten, before returning to her nightclub career. In the next two decades she was in just five more films and one TV show.
The story of this film is a lampooning of the Purity League. There was no such known identifiable entity in England, but the screenplay seems to take aim at a combination of the temperance league and various other social morality groups that were common in the decades before and after the turn of the 20th century. Indeed, Great Britain did not go so far as to establish prohibition, after seeing the American experience that led to widespread organized crime.
This film gives an impression of being a high-class production with a montage of nightclub scenes and snippets of traveling trains. But those and the costumes of the rich clothing of the period can't disguise that it is a cheap production. While Gainsborough made mostly B films, this is not one of its better ones. I left and returned four times to watch this film through to its end.
While the quality of British comedies in the 1930s couldn't compete with those of Hollywood, there were many fine English films made during the decade, including some comedies. The next decade would be a banner period of British comedy. For some very good British comedies of the 1930s, see any of the Jesse Matthews films with prominent performers of the period. Some of my favorites are "The Good Companions" of 1933, "Evergreen" of 1934, "It's Love Again" of 1936, and "Climbing High" of 1938. Other prominent actors and entertainers made good comedies during the decade as well. Robert Donat starred in "The Ghost Goes West" of 1935, with a fine supporting cast that includes Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette and Elsa Lanchester.
Oh, yes - another word on that Cinematograph Films Act of 1927. While British films from the start kept pace with American movie-making, by the mid-1920s, the English audiences for British-made films had declined from 25 percent to just five percent. Parliament passed the 1927 act to require that movie theaters show so many British-made films as well as any other. The law worked, and the audiences for British films soon increased. But there was a down-side to the new law as well. It led to many inferior films of poor quality just to meet the quotas. These films became known as "quota quickies."
A "quota quickie" or not, "Oh, Daddy" is a poor film with little humor and talent. I found just one line of dialog in the entire film worth a chuckle. Lord Pye says to Benita de Lys, "How dare you not tell me you were not what you were when all the time you really were."
None of the leads had the talent to make it big or last in movies -- even as supporting actors. Leslie Henson, who plays Lord Wilfred Pye, couldn't shed his silent film exaggerations, and he quickly becomes irksome in this film. He didn't have the looks, voice or skill to dance. This was his last lead role and the last film he was in for nearly 20 years.
Frances Day, as Benita de Lys, had the looks and was passable as an actress. But her singing voice wasn't very good on film. Day wasn't even British. She was born in New Jersey, nee Frances Schenk. At age 16, she was in a stage chorus line. When she was 19, she traveled to England where she married a promoter and began a nightclub career as a cabaret dancer and singer. After "Oh, Daddy," Day made only half a dozen more films in the 1930s, mostly forgotten, before returning to her nightclub career. In the next two decades she was in just five more films and one TV show.
The story of this film is a lampooning of the Purity League. There was no such known identifiable entity in England, but the screenplay seems to take aim at a combination of the temperance league and various other social morality groups that were common in the decades before and after the turn of the 20th century. Indeed, Great Britain did not go so far as to establish prohibition, after seeing the American experience that led to widespread organized crime.
This film gives an impression of being a high-class production with a montage of nightclub scenes and snippets of traveling trains. But those and the costumes of the rich clothing of the period can't disguise that it is a cheap production. While Gainsborough made mostly B films, this is not one of its better ones. I left and returned four times to watch this film through to its end.
While the quality of British comedies in the 1930s couldn't compete with those of Hollywood, there were many fine English films made during the decade, including some comedies. The next decade would be a banner period of British comedy. For some very good British comedies of the 1930s, see any of the Jesse Matthews films with prominent performers of the period. Some of my favorites are "The Good Companions" of 1933, "Evergreen" of 1934, "It's Love Again" of 1936, and "Climbing High" of 1938. Other prominent actors and entertainers made good comedies during the decade as well. Robert Donat starred in "The Ghost Goes West" of 1935, with a fine supporting cast that includes Jean Parker, Eugene Pallette and Elsa Lanchester.
Oh, yes - another word on that Cinematograph Films Act of 1927. While British films from the start kept pace with American movie-making, by the mid-1920s, the English audiences for British-made films had declined from 25 percent to just five percent. Parliament passed the 1927 act to require that movie theaters show so many British-made films as well as any other. The law worked, and the audiences for British films soon increased. But there was a down-side to the new law as well. It led to many inferior films of poor quality just to meet the quotas. These films became known as "quota quickies."
A "quota quickie" or not, "Oh, Daddy" is a poor film with little humor and talent. I found just one line of dialog in the entire film worth a chuckle. Lord Pye says to Benita de Lys, "How dare you not tell me you were not what you were when all the time you really were."
Cheesier than a large pizza!
mark.waltz12 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Leslie Henson and Robertson Hare are members of a local purity league wjo head to London for an examination of the nightclub scene and it's obvious that they will begin to see things in a different light when they begin to see the lovely chorus girls lead by Frances Day. It turns out that she's the daughter of a step relative (one who secretly doesn't believe in purity leagues) and this threatens to bring on some delicious scandal.
Henson and Hare have a delightful comic schtick that works well for their staid characters, one with a rubbery Leon Errol like body and the other hysterically stiff upper lip to the point of parody. Ms. Day gets to perform a series of bizarre musical numbers, one where one of the two men fantasizes that he turns into the Greek mythological character Pan. Modern audiences might find Day's singing voice to be a bit shrill, but she does have personality. This is the curio that pause plenty of amusing moments but it's probably more interesting for discriminating audiences with a lot of patience, especially for American audiences who have a knowledge of British culture from the past.
Henson and Hare have a delightful comic schtick that works well for their staid characters, one with a rubbery Leon Errol like body and the other hysterically stiff upper lip to the point of parody. Ms. Day gets to perform a series of bizarre musical numbers, one where one of the two men fantasizes that he turns into the Greek mythological character Pan. Modern audiences might find Day's singing voice to be a bit shrill, but she does have personality. This is the curio that pause plenty of amusing moments but it's probably more interesting for discriminating audiences with a lot of patience, especially for American audiences who have a knowledge of British culture from the past.
Oh, mummy!
JohnHowardReid30 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Here are all the things I found enjoyable in this delightful movie: The lovely star, Frances Day; amusingly rubber-faced Leslie Henson; Robertson Hare, the perfect stooge; Alfred Drayton, a master of delightful bombast. Witty dialogue and wonderfully nutty situations screenplayed by Austin Melford and Michael Powell. Sexy songs and well- staged production numbers, revamped from the highly successful West End presentation. Stylish direction by Graham Cutts and Austin Melford. Superb production values.
And now all the things I didn't like and get really upset about: 77 minutes just isn't long enough to enjoy all the turns in the wonderfully crazy plot and all its marvelously dipsy-do characters. You really have to see it twice! And I don't think it's available on DVD. I taped my copy from a TV broadcast.
And now all the things I didn't like and get really upset about: 77 minutes just isn't long enough to enjoy all the turns in the wonderfully crazy plot and all its marvelously dipsy-do characters. You really have to see it twice! And I don't think it's available on DVD. I taped my copy from a TV broadcast.
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