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] The screenplay concerns two music hall performers, an inventor and a con-man who travel back to Elizabethan times using a time machine.[2] A costume-production, many of which are immaculate, the film made extensive use of the Gainsborough wardrobe.

## 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 - Tommy Handley, a con artist and promoter
* Evelyn Dall - Susie Barton, an American stage actress
* George Moon - Bill Barton, her husband, an actor who is susceptible to get rich quick schemes
* Felix Aylmer - Professor Stewart McAndrew, an inventor and expert in the theory of relativity; he is descended from the House of Stuart
* Moore Marriott - A Soothsayer
* Graham Moffatt - His Nephew
* John Salew - William Shakespeare
* Leslie Bradley - Captain Walter Raleigh
* Olga Lindo - Queen Elizabeth I of England
* Roy Emerton - Captain John Smith
* Iris Lang - Princess Pocahontas
* Stéphane Grappelli - A Troubadour

## Critical reception

[edit]

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

[edit]

1. ^ "Time Flies (1944)". Archived from the original on 13 January 2009.
2. ^ "Time Flies (1944) - Walter Forde - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie".
3. ^ "Time Flies".
4. ^ "Time Flies".
5. ^ "Time Flies - Film from RadioTimes".

## 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 Sea Urchin (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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