I had heard about this film for years, and when it turned up on TCM I decided to catch it. I would have been better off catching a disease.
Now, I wanted to like this film - I really did. But the three words that keep coming to mind are: Pitiful, wretched, unfunny. The worst thing a comedy can be is unfunny.
Actually, Bela Lugosi is the best thing in the film, but that's not saying much. With shoe polish in his hair (and a toupee!), he is Von Housen, a criminal who sleeps in a coffin and has plans for world domination (what else?). He meets his match in Mother Riley, an incredibly annoying character played by actor Arthur Lucan in drag.
The problems with the film are many: mostly, it's just not funny. Lucan is unintelligible half of the time, the slapstick fight scenes are tired and lifeless (everybody seems to be anticipating what happens next), the character of the robot goes nowhere (literally), and, possibly worst of all, we are denied a big payoff as far as what happens with Lugosi's character! Oh yes, there is an absolutely horrendous musical number (!) in Mother Riley's shop at the beginning.
Everything looks as if it were shot in one take - and that was one too many. I felt as if this film ran for hours and hours, instead of 74 minutes. (BTW, the print shown on TCM omits the pre-credits footage with Allan Sherman added for American release; unfortunately, his awful title song remains.) One or two (barely) funny lines and situations cannot sustain this terrible film. Perhaps the Mother Riley series played better to British audiences, but it's so hard to tell using only this film as a yardstick. The other films in the series are not shown here in the US; maybe having Kitty McShane (Arthur Lucan's ex-wife) would have helped.
Bela definitely deserved better.
Now, I wanted to like this film - I really did. But the three words that keep coming to mind are: Pitiful, wretched, unfunny. The worst thing a comedy can be is unfunny.
Actually, Bela Lugosi is the best thing in the film, but that's not saying much. With shoe polish in his hair (and a toupee!), he is Von Housen, a criminal who sleeps in a coffin and has plans for world domination (what else?). He meets his match in Mother Riley, an incredibly annoying character played by actor Arthur Lucan in drag.
The problems with the film are many: mostly, it's just not funny. Lucan is unintelligible half of the time, the slapstick fight scenes are tired and lifeless (everybody seems to be anticipating what happens next), the character of the robot goes nowhere (literally), and, possibly worst of all, we are denied a big payoff as far as what happens with Lugosi's character! Oh yes, there is an absolutely horrendous musical number (!) in Mother Riley's shop at the beginning.
Everything looks as if it were shot in one take - and that was one too many. I felt as if this film ran for hours and hours, instead of 74 minutes. (BTW, the print shown on TCM omits the pre-credits footage with Allan Sherman added for American release; unfortunately, his awful title song remains.) One or two (barely) funny lines and situations cannot sustain this terrible film. Perhaps the Mother Riley series played better to British audiences, but it's so hard to tell using only this film as a yardstick. The other films in the series are not shown here in the US; maybe having Kitty McShane (Arthur Lucan's ex-wife) would have helped.
Bela definitely deserved better.