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Keep Your Seats, Please
''Keep Your Seats, Please'' is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Monty Banks and starring George Formby, Florence Desmond and Alastair Sim. It marked the film debut of the child star Binkie Stuart. The film was made by Associated Talking Pictures. The film follows a farcical plot based on the 1928 Russian satirical novel ''The Twelve Chairs'' by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov. The film features Formby's signature tune, " When I'm Cleaning Windows". Plot George Withers learns he is supposed to inherit some valuable jewels from his aunt, and enlists the aid of his dubious lawyer to ensure he gets them. It transpires the stones are hidden in the lining of one of six antique chairs, and his aunt has left instructions for her nephew to purchase the chairs at auction. But unfortunately they are sold separately, as he arrives too late to bid. Cast * George Formby as George Withers * Florence Desmond as Florrie * Gus McNaughton as Max * Alastair Sim as A. S. Drayton * H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monty Banks
Montague (Monty) Banks (18 July 1897 – 7 January 1950), born Mario Bianchi, was a 20th century Italian-born American comedian, film actor, director and producer who achieved success in the UK and the United States. Career Banks was born Mario Bianchi in Cesena, Italy. In 1914, Bianchi emigrated to the United States, first trying his luck on the New York stage. By 1918, he was an actor in Hollywood with the Roscoe Arbuckle, Arbuckle Company, performing in over 35 silent short comedies by the early 1920s, and then, starring in feature-length action comedy-thrillers as ''Play Safe (1927 film), Play Safe'' (1927). (A large excerpt from this movie is included in Robert Youngson's compilation film ''Days of Thrills and Laughter'' (1961) and the car-to-train transfer stunt explained in the 1980 documentary series ''Hollywood (British TV series), Hollywood''). Like Harold Lloyd, the comedy-thrillers he produced were popular but became increasingly risky and Banks was seriously injure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Farce
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity or nonsense; satire, parody, and mockery of real-life situations, people, events, and interactions; unlikely and humorous instances of miscommunication; ludicrous, improbable, and exaggerated characters; and broadly stylized performances. Genre Despite involving absurd situations and characters, the genre generally maintains at least a slight degree of realism and narrative continuity within the context of the irrational or ludicrous situations, often distinguishing it from completely absurdist or fantastical genres. Farces are often episodic or short in duration, often being set in one specific location where all events occur. Farces have historically been performed for the stage and film. Historical context The term ''farce'' is deri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syd Crossley
Syd Crossley (18 November 1885 – 1 November 1960) was an English stage and film actor. Born in London in 1885, Crossley began his career as a music hall comedian. He appeared in more than 110 films, often cast as a butler, between 1925 and 1942, with some of his most memorable early performances in Hal Roach shorts opposite Stan Laurel, Charley Chase, and Mabel Normand. He died in Troon, Cornwall. Partial filmography * ''Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde'' (1925) * ''North Star'' (1925) * '' The Unknown Soldier'' (1926) * '' The Golden Web'' (1926) * '' Jewels of Desire'' (1927) * '' Romantic Rogue'' (1927) * '' Play Safe'' (1927) * '' One Hour Married'' (1927) * ''The Blood Ship'' (1927) * ''The Circus Kid'' (1928) * ''Into No Man's Land'' (1928) * '' Fangs of the Wild'' (1928) * '' A Perfect Gentleman'' (1928) * ''The Hate Ship '' (1929) * ''Atlantic'' (1929) * '' Atlantik'' (1929) * ''The Younger Generation'' (1929) * ''The Fatal Warning'' (1929) * '' The Middle Watch'' (1930) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethel Coleridge
Ethel Coleridge (14 January 1883 – 15 August 1976) was an English actress, best known for her roles in the original Aldwych farces in the 1920s and 1930s. Life and career Coleridge was born Ethel Coleridge Tucker in South Molton, Devonshire, and educated at Bristol University. At the age of 22 she appeared onstage for the first time as a member of the chorus in ''Carmen''.Miss Ethel Coleridge, ''The Times'', 18 August 1976, p. 14 Over the next fifteen years she acted in a wide range of touring companies, and finally made her West End debut in a cast led by Gladys Cooper, in a revival of ''My Lady's Dress'' by Edward Knoblock; she played several roles in the piece, including Mrs Moss, "a stout, elderly, motherly type". Following this she was cast as Nancy Sibley in a revival of Knoblock and Arnold Bennett's ''Milestones''. Over the next six years she played character roles in plays ranging from earnest drama to farce, and in 1926 she was recruited by Tom Walls for what became v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harvey Braban
Harvey Braban (19 May 1883, in Brighton, Sussex, UK – 1943) was a British stage actor. He also appeared in films between 1920–1938. Braban performed regularly in West End plays, and also occasionally on Broadway. From 1920 he began appearing in silent films made by the leading British studios Stoll Pictures and the Ideal Film Company. Braban played the Chief Inspector in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Blackmail'' (1929) and thereafter often portrayed policemen or other official figures of authority on screen. One of his final roles was that of the Victorian Prime Minister Lord Salisbury in the 1938 film ''Sixty Glorious Years''. Selected filmography * '' The Prey of the Dragon'' (1921) * '' The Yellow Claw'' (1921) - Gaston Max * '' Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills'' (1921) - Gwylim Rhys * ''The Prince and the Beggarmaid'' (1921) - King Hildred * ''Shirley'' (1922) - Nunnally * ''Bentley's Conscience'' (1922) - Richard Glym * '' Man and His Kingdom'' (1922) * ''Diana of the Crossways ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
May Whitty
May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May in the Southern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent of November in the Northern Hemisphere and vice versa. Late May typically marks the start of the summer vacation season in the United States (Memorial Day) and Canada (Victoria Day) that ends on Labor Day, the first Monday of September. May (in Latin, ''Maius'') was named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility, Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May. Conversely, the Roman poet Ovid provides a second etymology, in which he says that the month of May is named for the ''maiores,'' Latin for "elders," and that the following month (June) is named for the ''iuniores,'' or "young people" (''Fasti VI.88''). Eta Aquariids meteor shower appea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford Heatherley
Clifford Heatherley Lamb (8 October 1888 in Preston, Lancashire – 15 September 1937 in London) was an English stage and film actor. Filmography * ''Henry VIII'' (1911) * ''Bleak House'' (1920) * ''The Tavern Knight'' (1920) * '' The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown'' (1921) * '' The Autumn of Pride'' (1921) * '' Mademoiselle from Armentieres'' (1926) * '' The Sea Urchin'' (1926) * '' The King's Highway'' (1927) * ''The Rolling Road'' (1927) * '' Boadicea'' (1927) * ''Roses of Picardy'' (1927) * '' Tesha'' (1928) * '' The Passing of Mr. Quin'' (1928) * '' The Constant Nymph'' (1928) * ''Champagne'' (1928) * ''High Treason'' (1929) * '' Splinters'' (1929) * ''The W Plan'' (1930) * ''The Compulsory Husband'' (1930) * '' Symphony in Two Flats'' (1930) * ''Who Killed Doc Robin?'' (1931) * '' Glamour'' (1931) * ''The Love Habit'' (1931) * '' Brother Alfred'' (1932) * '' Fires of Fate'' (1932) * ''Goodnight, Vienna'' (1932) * '' After the Ball'' (1932) * ''The Indiscretions of Eve'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Gordon
Hal Gordon (1894–1946) was a British film actor. A character actor, he appeared in over 90 films in both comic and straight roles. He started off as a lawyer's clerk but finding it dull he decided on the stage, making his music hall debut in 1912. He toured England and South Africa in pantomime and comedy before entering films in 1928, his first being '' Adam's Apple''. Filmography * '' Adam's Apple'' (1928) * '' When Knights Were Bold'' (1929) * ''Windjammer'' (1930) * '' Old Soldiers Never Die'' (1931) * '' Tilly of Bloomsbury'' (1931) * ''Poor Old Bill'' (1931) * '' The Girl in the Night'' (1931) * '' Out of the Blue'' (1931) * ''Creeping Shadows'' (1931) * '' Up for the Cup'' (1931) * '' Tonight's the Night: Pass It On'' (1932) * '' Money for Nothing'' (1932) * ''Help Yourself'' (1932) * '' A Night Like This'' (1932) * ''The Strangler'' (1932) * '' The New Hotel'' (1932) * '' Brother Alfred'' (1932) * ''Tin Gods'' (1932) * ''The Bad Companions'' (1932) * ''Jack's the Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enid Stamp Taylor
Enid Georgiana Stamp Taylor (12 June 1904 – 13 January 1946) was an English actress. Her childhood home was 17, Percy Avenue, in Whitley Bay, Northumberland, in what is now Tyne and Wear. Taylor first became known when she won a beauty pageant at a young age and this led to parts in musical comedies on stage, including ''The Cabaret Girl'' (1922), in which she was billed as simply "Enid Taylor". She progressed to film, appearing in Alfred Hitchcock's '' Easy Virtue'' (1928), ''Queen of Hearts'' (1934), and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945). The Stamp part of her name was included as a middle name; it was her grandmother's maiden name. Taylor married Sidney Colton and they had a daughter called Robin Anne who was born in 1933. Her marriage to Colton was dissolved in 1936. On 9 January 1946 she fell in the bathroom of her Park Lane flat and suffered a fractured skull. She was unconscious for three days; she woke briefly following two operations at St George's Hospital in Wimbledon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Tate
Ronald Macdonald Hutchison (4 July 1872 – 14 February 1940), professionally known as Harry Tate, was an English comedian, who performed in the music halls, in variety shows, and in films. Career Born in Lambeth, the son of a Scottish tea merchant, he worked as a clerk for the sugar refiners, Henry Tate & Sons, and also performed at evening smoking concerts. At Marie Lloyd's suggestion, he took his stage name from that of the company for which he worked. He made his professional stage debut at the Oxford Music Hall in 1895, and at first was known for his mimicry of performers such as Dan Leno, R. G. Knowles, George Robey, and Eugene Stratton.Richard Anthony Baker, ''British Music Hall: an illustrated history'', Pen & Sword, 2014, , p.240-242 Greater success came with his comedy sketch, "Motoring", which he introduced in 1902 and in which he played the part of a new car owner trying to repair it. He soon decided to abandon mimicry and concentrate on sketches, most of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Window Cleaner
"When I'm Cleaning Windows" is a comedy song performed by Lancastrian comic, actor and ukulele player George Formby. It first appeared in the 1936 film ''Keep Your Seats, Please''. The song was credited as written by Formby, Harry Gifford and Fred E. Cliffe. Formby performed the song in A♭ in ''Keep Your Seats, Please''. For the single release, the key was changed to B♭. The song was so successful that George Formby recorded another version of the song entitled "The Window Cleaner (No. 2)". This song uses similar orchestration to the original version and it is about further things which were seen on a window cleaning round. Because the song’s lyrics were racy for the time, it was banned by the BBC from being played on the radio. The corporation's director general John Reith stated that "if the public wants to listen to Formby singing his disgusting little ditty, they'll have to be content to hear it in the cinemas, not over the nation's airwaves"; Formby and his wife ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signature Tune
A signature song is the one song (or, in some cases, one of a few songs) that a popular and well-established recording artist or band is most closely identified with or best known for. This is generally differentiated from a one-hit wonder in that the artist usually has had success with other songs as well. A signature song may be a song that spearheads an artist's initial mainstream breakthrough, a song that revitalizes an artist's career, or a song that simply represents a high point in an artist's career. Often, a signature song will feature trademark characteristics of an artist and may encapsulate the artist's particular sound and style. Signature songs can be the result of spontaneous public identification, or a marketing tool developed by the music industry to promote artists, sell their recordings, and develop a fan base. Artists and bands with a signature song are generally expected to perform it at every concert appearance, often as an encore on concert tours, sometimes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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