''Old Mother Riley's Jungle Treasure'' is a low budget 1951 British

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

, the penultimate in the long running

Old Mother Riley Old Mother Riley is a fictional character portrayed from about 1934 to 1954 by Arthur Lucan and from 1954 to the 1980s by Roy Rolland as part of a British music hall act. Old Mother Riley (full comedy name: Daphne Bluebell Snowdrop Riley) is a ...

series starring

Arthur Lucan Arthur Lucan (born Arthur Towle; 16 September 1885 – 17 May 1954) was an English actor who performed the drag act Old Mother Riley on stage, radio and screen, with a series of comedy films from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Early life ...

and

Kitty McShane Kathleen "Kitty" McShane (19 May 1897 – 24 March 1964) was an Irish actress, best known as the wife and acting partner of Arthur Lucan, with whom she appeared in a series of ''Old Mother Riley'' stage shows and films from the 1930s to the ...

. It features an early appearance by future ''Carry On'' regular

Peter Butterworth Peter William Shorrocks Butterworth (4 February 1915Arthur Lucan Arthur Lucan (born Arthur Towle; 16 September 1885 – 17 May 1954) was an English actor who performed the drag act Old Mother Riley on stage, radio and screen, with a series of comedy films from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Early life ...

and

had separated by the time of production, and were touring in different "Old Mother Riley" shows. This was Kitty's final Mother Riley film, and her scenes with Lucan were reputedly shot on separate days. During filming, there was a strike over pay, led by the dancer

Josie Woods Josie Woods (16 May 1912 – 28 June 2008) was a Black British dancer, choreographer and activist. Early life Woods was born Josephine Lucy Wood in Canning Town, London, in 1912. Her father, Charles Wood, was from Dominica, and her mother, Emi ...

, who was an extra on the film.

Plot summary

Mother Riley, working in an antique shop with daughter Kitty, uncovers a secret treasure map hidden in the headboard of an antique bed. With the help of the ghost of the pirate Captain Morgan, Mother Riley and Kitty head for a remote tropical island in the South Seas, and begin their hunt for buried treasure. Not only do they find the fortune, but Mother Riley ends up celebrated by natives as their tribe’s queen.

Cast

*Old Mother Riley ...

*Kitty ...

*Jim ...

Garry Marsh Garry Marsh (21 May 1902 – 6 March 1981) was an English stage and film actor. Biography Born Leslie March Gerahty on 21 May 1902 in St Margarets, Middlesex, his parents were George and Laura. His elder brothers were the author Digby George ...

*Captain Daincourt ...

Cyril Chamberlain Cyril Chamberlain (8 March 1909 – 30 April 1974) was an English film and television actor. He appeared in a number of the early '' Carry On'', '' Doctor'' and '' St. Trinian's'' films. Chamberlain's first film appearance was in the 1936 Mich ...

*Chief 'Stinker' Carstairs ... Robert Adams *James Orders ...

Roddy Hughes Rhodri Henry Hughes (19 June 1891 – 22 February 1970) was a Welsh theatre, film and television actor, who appeared in over 80 films between 1932 and 1961. Selected filmography * '' Mr. Bill the Conqueror'' (1932) * '' Reunion'' (1932) * '' Sa ...

*Harry Benson ... Willer Neal *Estelle ... Anita D'ray *Morgan the Pirate ... Sebastian Cabot *Flying Officer Prang ...

Bill Shine (actor) Wilfred William Dennis Shine (20 October 1911 – 24 July 1997) was a British theatre, film and television actor. Biography Shine was born into a family of theatre actors; among others, Shine's father, mother, grandmother, two uncles and an au ...

*Steve ...

Peter Butterworth Peter William Shorrocks Butterworth (4 February 1915Peter Swanwick Walter Peter Swanwick (29 September 1922 – 14 November 1968) was a British actor best remembered as the "Supervisor" (sometimes called the Controller) in the 1967 TV series, ''The Prisoner''. Swanwick's film career began with bit parts in fi ...

*Slim ... Harry Lane *Jake ...

Michael Ripper Michael George Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor who appeared in many British horror and science fiction films. Career Ripper began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 195 ...

*Air Hostess ... Maria Mercedes *Ted ... Gerald Rex

Critical reception

*''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' called the movie, a "relentlessly absurd farce...A film in the stylized vein of British comedy (as are all the pictures in the "

" series) that continues through the films of

Monty Python Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...

." *David Parkinson writes in Moviemail.com, " a discreet veil should be drawn over the last third of Jungle Treasure (1951), as its racial stereotyping outdoes anything seen in a

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

adventure."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Mother Riley's Jungle Treasure 1951 films 1951 comedy films 1950s British films 1950s English-language films British black-and-white films British comedy films English-language comedy films Films directed by Maclean Rogers Films scored by Wilfred Burns Films set in Africa Old Mother Riley films