''Poor Old Bill'' is a 1931 British

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Monty Banks Montague (Monty) Banks (born Mario Bianchi; 18 July 1897 – 7 January 1950) was a 20th century Italian-born American comedian, film actor, director and producer who achieved success in the United States and United Kingdom. Career Banks was bor ...

and starring

Leslie Fuller Leslie Fuller (9 October 1888 – 24 April 1948) was a British comedy film actor. Early life Albert Leslie Fuller was born in 1888 at 14 Pollard Row, Bethnal Green, London.Some sources wrongly give his birthplace as Margate, as he had a lifelo ...

Iris Ashley Iris Blanche Stafford-Northcote (26 December 1909 – 5 January 1994), known as Iris Ashley, was an Irish-born British stage and film actress. Biography She was born in Trellis Cottage, Rushbrooke, Queenstown (now Cobh), County Cork, to Englis ...

and Syd Courtenay.BFI.org
/ref> It marked the film debut of a very young

Peter Lawford Peter Sydney Ernest Lawford (né Aylen; 7 September 1923 – 24 December 1984) was an English-American actor.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 26 December 1984. He was a member of the "Rat Pack" and the brother-in-law of US president Jo ...

, playing the child of the main character, Bill (Leslie Fuller).

Premise

A man sponges off an old comrade from the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

who believes he has saved his life during the war, although this ultimately proves not to be true.

Cast

as Bill *

as Emily * Syd Courtenay as Harry *

as Horace *

Hal Gordon Hal Gordon (1894–1946) was a British film actor. A character actor, he appeared in over 90 films in both comic and straight roles. He started off as a lawyer's clerk but finding it dull he decided on the stage, making his music hall debut in ...

as Jack * Robert Brooks Turner as Mick * Dick Francis as Constable

Critical reception

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' gave the film one out of four stars, calling it an "Interesting conception for a farce," but concluded that, "Unfortunately, the idea is carried on much too long, stretching what little material there is."

References

Bibliography

* Sutton, David R. ''A chorus of raspberries: British film comedy 1929–1939''. University of Exeter Press, 2000. .

External links

* 1931 films 1931 comedy films Films shot at British International Pictures Studios 1930s English-language films Films directed by Monty Banks British comedy films British black-and-white films 1930s British films English-language comedy films {{1930s-UK-comedy-film-stub