The Good Old Days

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Directed by Roy William Neill, 1939

Popular music hall comedian Max Miller's twelfth film, and the only one to be shot in period costume: a slight, knockabout tale of an itinerant travelling theatre troupe and their troubles with the draconian laws of the land.

Polly (Kathleen Gibson) gives Alexander (Max Miller) money for a meal.

Credits

Director Production Company Story Screenplay	Roy William Neill Warner Bros First National Ralph Smart Austin Melford, John Dighton
Cast: Max Miller (Alexander the Greatest); Hal Walters (Titch); H.F. Maltby (Randolph Macaulay); Martita Hunt (Sarah Macaulay); Kathleen Gibson (Polly); Anthony Shaw (Lovelace); Allan Jeayes (Shadwell); Sam Wilkinson (Croker); Roy Emerton (Grimes); Phyllis Monkman (Mrs Bennett); Ian Fleming (Lord Wakely)
79 mins, 7,129 ft, sound, black & white

Why are we so keen to find it?

Music hall comedian Max Miller was one of the giants of the 1930s, and this is one of five of his fourteen films that are currently missing, and the only one to be filmed in period costume.

What's it about?

The scene is England, 1840, where dramatic plays can only be performed in a handful of licensed theatres. Alexander the Greatest and his travelling theatre company arrive in London and begin performing at a struggling tavern, The King's Head, to great success. A rival landlord, angry over his loss of business, informs the authorities and they are forced to pay a heavy fine or else end up in the debtor's prison. Imprisonment and penury are avoided however when they rescue the kidnapped son of a Lord from the clutches of an evil chimney sweep, for which they are handsomely rewarded.

The most thorough synopsis of the film can be found in the original (damaged) Exhibitor's Campaign Book, held in the BFI's Special Collections:

"In the good old days of 1840 when drama could be performed only in licensed theatres, Alexander the Greatest finds himself in the pillory, with his troupe of artists in the stocks, for disturbing the peace of the Sabbath. Small boys pelt them with vegetables until Polly, the daughter of an elderly puritan, scolds them. Gratefully Alec tells her that with his influence and her beauty she should be a leading lady at Drury Lane.

She takes it as an invitation and follows them to London where she finds one of the troupe, Macaulay, looking hungrily through the window of a chop house. She gives him money for a meal. He eats a hearty dinner and takes her back to their lodgings in Grimes, the sweep's house.

One of Grimes' chimney boys tells Alex that he has been kidnapped and asks for money to enable him to get home. Alec does not believe the boy's story, and in any case he is penniless.

They have not even half a crown between them to pay the entrance fee for a pie-eating contest for which Alec is determined to enter Macaulay, who always has a ravenous appetite. Polly lends Alec half a crown, but the meal she has given Macaulay nearly defeats their plans.

They take him to an apothecary to restore his appetite, and enter the protesting Macaulay for the contest.

Macaulay wins, and Alec persuades Mrs Bennett, the proprietress of "The King's Head" tavern, where business is very poor, to let his company perform a drama in the saloon. "The King's Head" becomes very popular and lures away the patrons from "The Eagle".

The proprietor of "The Eagle" is Shadwell, who is so incensed at the loss of his patrons that he becomes "common informer" immediately Alexander and his company stop presenting a concert in favour of a drama.

Alexander and Mrs Bennett are summoned for performing a drama without a licence. They are fined £150 and in default are faced with imprisonment.

Sitting dejectedly outside the Court house they see a notice advertising a reward of £500 for a lost child. They remember the boy at their lodgings, but the chimney boys sleep in an anti-chamber off Grimes' bedroom and they are afraid to face the burly Grimes and his bull terrier.

Alec's faithful factotum, Titch, offers to find the way down the chimney, but he and Alec get lost in the chimney flues and it is the boys who hear them and show them the way.

Grimes raises a hue and cry and chases them across the roof tops. Titch and the boys hold them at bay while Alex hurries David to "The King's Head" just in time to give David to his father and claim the reward which keeps them out of prison and enables the show to go on."

Last seen?

The film was released in June 1939, with the trade show date being listed as 6 June in the 1940 Kinematograph Year Book and the Kine Weekly review being published 15 June 1939.

Due to the particularly British nature of Miller's comedy, it's perhaps safe to assume that the film only secured a release on these shores. However, the London release, where it was running at the Cambridge, was reviewed in Variety (28 June 1939), with the reviewer stating that the "theme should interest U.S. audiences".

What else do we know about it?

The pressbook describes Max Miller being injured several times during the filming, sustaining a black eye, being punched on the jaw and narrowly escaping a 30 foot fall from one of the sets.

The film's director, Roy William Neill, was predominantly a Hollywood director who between 1937 and 1939 directed 12 British feature films, only four of which survive. The Good Old Days was the third of four Max Miller vehicles directed by Neill for Warner Bros, the others being Thank Evans, Everything Happens to Me (both 1938) and Hoots Mon! (1939). Interestingly, Neill was originally slated to direct The Lady Vanishes (d. Alfred Hitchcock, 1938), but instead he returned to Hollywood, where he would direct a number of Sherlock Holmes titles starring Basil Rathbone.

The original story was written by Ralph Smart, who, after working on numerous 'quota quickies' during the 1930s alongside the likes of Michael Powell and Anthony Asquith, went on to Ealing Studios - notably working on three of the studio's four Australian films - and from there to a successful career in British television, creating the hit series Danger Man (ITV, 1960-67) and writing and producing others.

John Dighton, who co-wrote the screenplay with Austin Melford, also worked on several screenplays for Ealing, most notably Went The Day Well (1942), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and The Man In The White Suit (1951). He also wrote the screenplay for Roman Holiday (1953), Audrey Hepburn's breakthrough film.

Does anything survive?

An Exhibitors Advertising and Press Campaign book survives in the BFI's Special Collections. However, it sustained some damage at some point, with a photograph of the female lead, Kathleen Gibson having been razored out. All the text is intact, however.

There are also a number of black and white production/press stills in the BFI Stills, Posters and Designs collection.

Reviews

Kinematograph Weekly praised Miller's "exuberant portrayal as Alexander," but with one caveat - "good as he is, he is not at his best in costume". It added that "Hal Walters and H.F. Maltby are the most prominent of a sound, rather than spectacular supporting cast." It also highlights the "rousing, rough-house climax. The pie-eating contest, a chase through chimneys... are the slapstick highlights."

The McCarthy Ratings agreed that "the talkative comedian Max Miller is not at home in period costume." However, it continued, the "atmosphere is quite good, with effective settings of the period and the highlights have a robust exuberance about them which will please the masses..."

Monthly Film Bulletin also mentioned the rooftop chase but described the film as "essentially a vehicle for Max Miller and his 'cheeky-chappy' type of humour... it being only necessary to add that this film can be recommended to all... Miller fans."

Graham Greene, reviewing in The Spectator, took a broadly similar view:

"I am inclined to avoid a Max Miller film, but The Good Old Days has one Regency sequence of a pie-eating contest in a public-house which almost makes it worth a visit. The sight of seconds massaging the huge stomachs of the contestants - the voice of the referee tolling out the score, 'The Champion is starting his ninth pie, leading by four pies from the Camberwell Cannibal' - has a pleasant period grossness."

Sarah Currant, Reading Room Librarian, BFI National Library

You can find more about British films of the late 1930s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.