Time Flies (1944 film)

1944 British film

Time Flies

Opening title

Directed by| Walter Forde
Screenplay by| J.O.C. Orton
Ted Kavanagh
Howard Irving Young
Produced by| Edward Black
Starring| Tommy Handley
Evelyn Dall
George Moon
Cinematography| Basil Emmott
Edited by| R. E. Dearing
Music by| Bretton Byrd

Production
company

Gainsborough Pictures

Distributed by| General Film Distributors (UK)

Release date

* 8 May 1944 (1944-05-08) (UK)

Running time

| 88 minutes
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English

Time Flies is a 1944 British comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Tommy Handley, Evelyn Dall, Felix Aylmer and Moore Marriott.[1][2] The screenplay was by J.O.C. Orton, Ted Kavanagh and Howard Irving Young.

The story concerns two music hall performers, an inventor and a con-man who travel back to Elizabethan times using a time machine.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

Entertainers Bill and Susie Barton are on tour when Bill's old friend Tommy shows up soliciting funds for a new scheme, Time Ferry Services Limited. Bill has given Tommy $10,000 to help Professor McAndrew develop the Time Ball, a primitive time machine. Enraged, Susie goes to the lavish apartment where Tommy and the Professor are staying to demand the money back. However, the group discovers that Tommy is actually a valet and has been pretending to be wealthy by borrowing his employer's apartment and clothes. His boss calls the police and the group hides in the Time Ball. Tommy closes the hatch, accidentally activating the invention, and they are sent back in time to Elizabethan London where Tommy befriends Sir Walter Raleigh and Queen Elizabeth I. He starts a new swindle by claiming to "own" America and selling off pieces of land to members of the court.

The Professor is arrested and jailed in the Tower of London for being a Scottish spy, trapping the group in the past. Meanwhile, Susie meets William Shakespeare and feeds him some of his own lines, which he eagerly writes down. Susie and Bill meet Captain John Smith and Pocahontas in a tavern and steal their identities so they can gain an audience with the queen and ask her to pardon the Professor. However, they are unmasked and sentenced to be executed along with the Professor and Tommy. The queen's soldiers try to burn them alive in the Time Ball, but the professor fixes it and they return to the modern day. However, they show up several weeks too early and gradually fade away due to a temporal paradox.

## Cast

[edit]

* Tommy Handley as Tommy Handley
* Evelyn Dall as Susie Barton
* George Moon as Bill Barton
* Felix Aylmer as Professor Stewart McAndrew
* Moore Marriott as a soothsayer
* Graham Moffatt as his nephew
* John Salew as William Shakespeare
* Leslie Bradley as Captain Walter Raleigh
* Olga Lindo as Queen Elizabeth I of England
* Roy Emerton as Captain John Smith
* Iris Lang as Princess Pocahontas
* Stéphane Grappelli as a troubadour

## Production

[edit]

It was one of the last films made by Ted Black at Gainsborough.[4] A costume-production, the film made extensive use of the Gainsborough wardrobe.[citation needed]

## Critical reception

[edit]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The idea of the story is undoubtedly clever, but its execution is poor. 'Tommy Handley can never be reckoned a great screen comedian and Evelyn Dall acts far worse than she can croon. Felix Aylmer as the professor is given no scope, and apart from a brief appearance of Moore Marriott in the pillory, Olga Lindo as Queen Elizabeth and one or two pieces of trick photography, the film contains nothing worth a second thought. Once or twice the dialogue is witty and once or twice situations are well exploited, but for the rest the film contains nothing to appeal to any adult mind."[5]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Lavishly staged, but somewhat laboured musical burlesque."[6]

Sky Cinema gave the film two out of five stars, stating: "Despite the subject and the cast, the treatment lacks vivacity."[7]

TV Guide wrote "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."[8]

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".[9]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Not bad, but good idea should have been more brightly treated."[10]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Time Flies". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 March 2025.
2. ^ "Time Flies (1944)". Archived from the original on 13 January 2009.
3. ^ "Time Flies (1944) - Walter Forde - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie".
4. ^ Vagg, Stephen (1 December 2024). "Forgotten British Film Moguls: Ted Black". Filmink. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
5. ^ "Time Flies". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 11 (121): 28. 1 January 1944. ProQuest 1305805688.
6. ^ "Time Flies". Kine Weekly. 324 (1923): 28. 24 February 1944. ProQuest 2826346927.
7. ^ "Time Flies". Sky Movies. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017.
8. ^ "Time Flies". TV Guide. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017.
9. ^ "Time Flies - Film from RadioTimes". Archived from the original on 21 April 2017.
10. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 253\. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.

## External links

[edit]

* Time Flies at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Walter Forde

* Wait and See (1928)
* What Next? (1928)
* The Silent House (1929)
* Would You Believe It! (1929)
* Red Pearls (1930)
* You'd Be Surprised! (1930)
* The Last Hour (1930)
* Lord Richard in the Pantry (1930)
* Bed and Breakfast (1930)
* Third Time Lucky (1931)
* The Ringer (1931)
* The Ghost Train (1931)
* Splinters in the Navy (1931)
* Condemned to Death (1932)
* Lord Babs (1932)
* Jack's the Boy (1932)
* Rome Express (1932)
* Orders Is Orders (1933)
* Jack Ahoy (1934)
* Chu Chin Chow (1934)
* Bulldog Jack (1935)
* Brown on Resolution (1935)
* King of the Damned (1935)
* Land Without Music (1936)
* Kicking the Moon Around (1938)
* The Gaunt Stranger (1938)
* Let's Be Famous (1939)
* The Four Just Men (1939)
* Cheer Boys Cheer (1939)
* Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday (1939)
* Charley's (Big-Hearted) Aunt (1940)
* Saloon Bar (1940)
* Sailors Three (1940)
* Gasbags (1941)
* The Ghost Train (1941)
* Inspector Hornleigh Goes To It (1941)
* Atlantic Ferry (1941)
* Flying Fortress (1942)
* The Peterville Diamond (1943)
* It's That Man Again (1943)
* Time Flies (1944)
* One Exciting Night (1944)
* Master of Bankdam (1947)
* Cardboard Cavalier (1949)

* v
* t
* e

Films produced by Gainsborough Pictures

"Gainsborough melodramas"|

* The Man in Grey (1943)
* Fanny by Gaslight (1944)
* Love Story (1944)
* Madonna of the Seven Moons (1944)
* The Wicked Lady (1945)
* They Were Sisters (1945)
* Caravan (1946)
* The Magic Bow (1946)
* The Root of All Evil (1947)
* Jassy (1947)
* When the Bough Breaks (1947)

Other|

* The Passionate Adventure (1924)
* The Rat (1925)
* The Cabaret Kid (1926)
* The Triumph of the Rat  (1926)
* Blighty (1927)
* The Constant Nymph (1928)
* The First Born (1928)
* The Return of the Rat (1929)
* Taxi for Two (1929)
* A Night in Montmartre (1931)
* Hindle Wakes (1931)
* Jack's the Boy (1932)
* It's a Boy (1933)
* Friday the Thirteenth (1933)
* Wild Boy (1934)
* My Old Dutch (1934)
* The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
* Oh, Mr Porter! (1937)
* Doctor Syn (1937)
* Strange Boarders (1938)
* The Ghost Train (1941)
* I Thank You (1941)
* Back-Room Boy (1942)
* Uncensored (1942)
* Dear Octopus (1943)
* Bees in Paradise (1944)
* Time Flies (1944)
* Give Us the Moon (1944)
* Two Thousand Women (1944)
* Waterloo Road (1945)
* A Place of One's Own (1945)
* I'll Be Your Sweetheart (1945)
* Dear Murderer (1947)
* Easy Money (1948)
* Miranda (1948)
* Broken Journey (1948)
* My Brother's Keeper (1948)
* Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
* Vote for Huggett (1949)
* It's Not Cricket (1949)
* The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
* Marry Me! (1949)
* The Bad Lord Byron (1949)
* Christopher Columbus (1949)
* So Long at the Fair (1950)

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