The Love Match

1955 British film by David Paltenghi

  • February 1955 (1955-02)
Running time
85 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBox office£174,991 (UK) [1]

The Love Match is a 1955 British black and white comedy film directed by David Paltenghi and starring Arthur Askey, Glenn Melvyn, Thora Hird and Shirley Eaton.[2] A football-mad railway engine driver and his fireman are desperate to get back in time to see a match. It was based on the 1953 play of the same name by Glenn Melvyn, one of the stars of the film.[3] A TV spin-off series, Love and Kisses, appeared later in 1955.[4]

Cast

  • Arthur Askey as Bill Brown
  • Glenn Melvyn as Wally Binns
  • Thora Hird as Sal Brown
  • Shirley Eaton as Rose Brown
  • James Kenney as Percy Brown
  • Edward Chapman as Mr. Longworth
  • Danny Ross as Alf Hall
  • Robb Wilton as Mr. Muddlecombe
  • Anthea Askey as Vera
  • Patricia Hayes as Emma Binns
  • Iris Vandeleur as Mrs. Entwhistle
  • William Franklyn as Arthur Ford
  • Leonard Williams as aggressive man
  • Peter Swanwick as Mr. Hall
  • Dorothy Blythe as Waitress
  • Reginald Hearne as Police Constable Wilfred
  • Maurice Kaufmann as Harry Longworth
  • Janet Davies as motorist

Release

Box Office

According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit.[5][6] According to Kinematograph Weekly it was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1955.[7]

Critical reception

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Good, noisy north country comedy. Old jokes notch remarkably high scoring rate."[8]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Although this is an admirable enough comedy, it is also one of those unforgivably patronising pictures that bourgeois British film makers believed presented an authentic picture of working-class life. Arthur Askey stars as a football crazy railway employee whose passion for a team of no-hopers lands him in all sorts of trouble. Struggling against a shortage of genuinely funny situations, the cast does well to keep the action alive. The highlight is Askey's heckling of the referee, a wonderful moment of football hooliganism."[9]

TV Guide noted a "highly enjoyable farce."[10]

Britmovie called it a "boisterous Lancashire comedy with a rapid succession of old jokes."[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p504
  2. ^ "The Love Match (1955)". BFI. Archived from the original on 18 January 2009.
  3. ^ Goble, Alan (8 September 2011). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. ISBN 9783110951943.
  4. ^ "Love And Kisses (Cast)". phill.co.uk.
  5. ^ U.S. MONEY BEHIND 30% OF BRITISH FILMS: Problems for the Board of Trade The Manchester Guardian 4 May 1956: 7
  6. ^ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of The 1950s The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press USA. p. 29.
  7. ^ "Other Money Makers of 1955". Kinematograph Weekly. 15 December 1955. p. 5.
  8. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 340. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
  9. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 565. ISBN 9780992936440.
  10. ^ "The Love Match". TVGuide.com.
  11. ^ "The Love Match". britmovie.co.uk.

External links

  • The Love Match at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • The Love Match then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets
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