Time Flies (1944 film)

Times Flies is a 1944 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Handley, Evelyn Dall, Felix Aylmer and Moore Marriott.[1] The screenplay concerns two music hall performers, an inventor and a con-man who travel back to Elizabethan times using a time machine.[2]

Time Flies
Opening title
Directed byWalter Forde
Produced byEdward Black
Screenplay byJ.O.C. Orton
Ted Kavanagh
Howard Irving Young
StarringTommy Handley
Evelyn Dall
George Moon
Music byBretton Byrd
CinematographyBasil Emmott
Edited byR.E. Dearing
Production
company
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors (UK)
Release date
  • 8 May 1944 (1944-05-08) (UK)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

A professor invents a time sphere which takes a group of 1940s entertainers to Elizabethan London, where they encounter Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh and introduce them to jazz culture.

They also meet Captain John Smith and a very heavy-drinking Pocahontas. The main female character meets William Shakespeare and feeds him some of his own lines, which he eagerly writes down.

An over-lavish production in terms of costumes, many of which are immaculate, the film largely makes use of the Gainsborough wardrobe to get to films out of one set of Elizabethan clothes.

Cast

Critical reception

Sky Cinema gave the film two out of five stars, its review stating: "Despite the subject and the cast, the treatment lacks vivacity".[3] TV Guide rated it similarly: "A well-tuned script takes full advantages of the possibilities for comedy, but radio star Handley is a bit of a disappointment, looking sourly out of place on the screen";[4] The Radio Times rated it three out of five stars, concluding: "Some of the jokes have travelled less well and it falls flat in places, but it's a thoroughly entertaining romp".[5]

References


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