Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Good Old Mother Riley

If you know your Kinks songs, you'll know that line. But most Americans aren't familiar with Mother Riley because these films were never shown here, well, not as far as I know. I first stumbled across them while working in a film archive. I couldn't believe it! Of course I loved the drag factor but Arthur Lucan was a physical comedy genius. There's a wiki page now, of course, so you can read more. Here's a long clip and there's plenty more on the youtubes.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, lawsie! I saw "Mother Riley Meets the Vampire" and wrote to my British friend Nancy to ask her what the HELL that was all about. She replied, "I never would have imagined a Mother Riley film would reach the States and I would have to warn you, 'DON'T EVER WATCH A MOTHER RILEY FILM!'"

Christopher said...

I remember seeing some of the films on TV overseas in Australia..Old Mother Riley Meets The Vampire(My Son The Vampire in the US) is probably the film most people know cuz of the Lugosi factor