Old Mother Riley, Detective (1943, UK)

In the wartime gloom of 1943, a storyline involving the theft of foodstuffs was a gripping theme for British audiences. After a theft from the safe where Old Mother Riley works as a cleaner, she is asked for her fingerprints to eliminate innocent staff members. The shenanigans around this issue last for ten minutes or more of the film, but soon Old Mother Riley is on the track of a gang of criminals smuggling food. She hides in a barrel so as to be taken to the gang's hideout.

Arthur Lucan played Old Mother Riley in a series of films after a very successful music hall career; his wife Kitty McShane played her daughter. The acting and the plot were uniformly awful, and the films are embarrassing to watch nowadays.

HF September 2006

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