''A Fire Has Been Arranged'' is a 1935 British comedy film directed by

Leslie S. Hiscott Leslie Stephenson Hiscott (25 July 18943 May 1968) was an English film director and screenwriter who made over sixty films between 1925 and 1956. He was born in London in 1894. He directed ''Alibi'' (1931), the first ever depiction of Hercule ...

and starring Chesney Allen,

Bud Flanagan Bud Flanagan, (born Chaim Reuben Weintrop, 14 October 1896 – 20 October 1968) was a British music hall and vaudeville entertainer and comedian, and later a television and film actor. He was best known as a double act with Chesney Allen. Fla ...

and

Alastair Sim Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish character actor who began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his ...

. After a spell in prison three criminals return to recover their loot only to find the place where they have stashed it has been turned into a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

. They take jobs at the store in order to locate the whereabouts of their loot.Sutton p.137 The three discover that the unscrupulous managers of the store, Shuffle and Cutte, are keen to be accomplices in their plot. It was made at

Twickenham Studios Twickenham Studios (formerly known as Twickenham Film Studios) is a film studio in St Margarets, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, that is used by various motion picture and television companies. It was established in 1913 by Ralph ...

. The film ends with the song '' Where the Arches Used To Be''.

Cast

* Chesney Allen as Ches *

as Bud *

Hal Walters Henry Paul "Hal" Walters (29 January 1892 – 7 September 1940) was a British actor. He was best known for his role in ''The Four Feathers'' (1939). He was killed by a bomb in an air raid during the London Blitz. Selected filmography * ''Just ...

as Hal *

Harold French Harold French (23 April 1897 – 19 October 1997) was an English film director, screenwriter and actor. Biography After training at the Italia Conti School, he made his acting debut age 12, in a production of ''The Winter's Tale''. As an ...

as Toby * Mary Lawson as Betty *

as Cutte * C. Denier Warren as Shuffle *

Robb Wilton Robert Wilton Smith (28 August 1881 – 1 May 1957), better known as Robb Wilton, was an English comedian and actor. He was best known for his filmed monologues during the 1930s and 1940s, in which he played incompetent authority figures. His tr ...

as Oswald *

Vincent Holman Vincent Holman (22 September 1886 – 7 April 1962) was a British stage, film and television actor. On stage, he was in the original cast of Arnold Ridley's ''The Ghost Train (play), The Ghost Train'' at Brighton's Theatre Royal, Brighton, Th ...

as Ex-detective * Jack Vyvian as Prison Warder * The Buddy Bradley Rhythm Girls as Shop Girls

References

Bibliography

* Sutton, David R. ''A chorus of raspberries: British film comedy 1929-1939''. University of Exeter Press, 2000.

External links

* 1935 films 1935 comedy films 1930s English-language films Films directed by Leslie S. Hiscott Films shot at Twickenham Film Studios British comedy films Films set in England British black-and-white films 1930s British films English-language comedy films {{1930s-UK-comedy-film-stub