Old Mother Riley's Circus (1941, UK)

In 1941, the series of Old Mother Riley films had gathered enough momentum for a large budget to be lavished on making this film. Arthur Lucan continues playing Old Mother Riley, but in this film, her daughter, played by Kitty McShane, is not with her at first. Mother and daughter became separated by force of circumstances many years ago.

Mother Riley gets a job working in a cinema, and then at a loss-making circus. Her long-lost daughter is working there too, and although they don't know one another at first, the facts eventually come out.

Despite the large budget, with many professional circus artistes performing, this film is, if anything, more grotesque than the earlier ones, with Lucan's eccentric mannerisms reducing the believability of the character.

Here Old Mother Riley is trying to get a job at the Labour Exchange, where the clerk is an oddly masculine woman.

HF September 2006

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