This is a rather mediocre comedy starring Dave Willis (as "Dave") and Pat Kirkwood (as "Pat") -- clearly the two were expected to be familiar personalities in their own right to the audience of the time.
Dave is the worm that turns; having accidentally come into possession of a valuable item by mistake through his own ineptitude, he invests the reward money into becoming joint owner of the lodging-house in which he lives, is bullied into acting as unpaid dogsbody rather than proprietor, and then inspired to mount a bullying takeover of his own by a lady guest who flatters him into thinking he resembles Napoleon. Pat is the spunky little maid-of-all-work who earns her mistress' anger by fraternising with Dave when he is a poorly-paid lodger, and then by using her influence with him to wangle herself above-stairs when he takes over as owner. She performs various song and dance numbers competently in the course of the film. Frankly, I found myself a bit confused by the relationship between Dave and Pat, since we are more or less led to assume that they are going to pair up, but she then shows no resentment at the end of the film when he suddenly goes off with an older, richer woman...
Notable among the various guests at the lodging-house are Tommy Trinder and Max Wall as a couple of down-on-their-luck music hall artistes who are perpetually quarrelling. We see nothing of their actual act except some of Max Wall's characteristic sprawling agility; personally, I would rather have seen a little more of this pair and a little less of the lugubrious Dave (described by a contemporary as having "a distinctive comedy personality.... reminiscent of Chaplin in its mixture of wistfulness and whimsicality", but not one that appeals to me in its combination of put-upon stupidity, cheeky chappy act, and resentment).
The film ends, perhaps predictably, on a "let's put on a show!" note, as Dave and Pat stage a cabaret to draw guests into their grand re-opening. Dave performs a fairly amusing novelty song about Napoleon and Pat reprises her earlier kitchen-table song and dance to the title number, backed by a chorus of maids and footmen. They invite all their old guests to attend, thus explaining why the same characters turn up again(!) Personally, I'm afraid I would concur with the less charitable "Monthly Film Bulletin" reviewer who concluded in September 1938: "A sufficient plot and good photography are not enough to support this limp and patchy picture." The dialogue is sometimes mildly funny but never rises to any great heights; the musical numbers are competent but unmemorable, the slapstick rather tedious, and on the whole the film is an inoffensive but dull one, not worth seeking out.
Dave is the worm that turns; having accidentally come into possession of a valuable item by mistake through his own ineptitude, he invests the reward money into becoming joint owner of the lodging-house in which he lives, is bullied into acting as unpaid dogsbody rather than proprietor, and then inspired to mount a bullying takeover of his own by a lady guest who flatters him into thinking he resembles Napoleon. Pat is the spunky little maid-of-all-work who earns her mistress' anger by fraternising with Dave when he is a poorly-paid lodger, and then by using her influence with him to wangle herself above-stairs when he takes over as owner. She performs various song and dance numbers competently in the course of the film. Frankly, I found myself a bit confused by the relationship between Dave and Pat, since we are more or less led to assume that they are going to pair up, but she then shows no resentment at the end of the film when he suddenly goes off with an older, richer woman...
Notable among the various guests at the lodging-house are Tommy Trinder and Max Wall as a couple of down-on-their-luck music hall artistes who are perpetually quarrelling. We see nothing of their actual act except some of Max Wall's characteristic sprawling agility; personally, I would rather have seen a little more of this pair and a little less of the lugubrious Dave (described by a contemporary as having "a distinctive comedy personality.... reminiscent of Chaplin in its mixture of wistfulness and whimsicality", but not one that appeals to me in its combination of put-upon stupidity, cheeky chappy act, and resentment).
The film ends, perhaps predictably, on a "let's put on a show!" note, as Dave and Pat stage a cabaret to draw guests into their grand re-opening. Dave performs a fairly amusing novelty song about Napoleon and Pat reprises her earlier kitchen-table song and dance to the title number, backed by a chorus of maids and footmen. They invite all their old guests to attend, thus explaining why the same characters turn up again(!) Personally, I'm afraid I would concur with the less charitable "Monthly Film Bulletin" reviewer who concluded in September 1938: "A sufficient plot and good photography are not enough to support this limp and patchy picture." The dialogue is sometimes mildly funny but never rises to any great heights; the musical numbers are competent but unmemorable, the slapstick rather tedious, and on the whole the film is an inoffensive but dull one, not worth seeking out.
