Old Mother Riley (1937)

Old Mother Riley is a 1937 British comedy film directed by Oswald Mitchell and starring Arthur Lucan in the lead, with Kitty McShane, Barbara Everest, Patrick Ludlow and Hubert Leslie. Mother Riley and her daughter stop the plans of some disinherited relatives to overturn the terms of a will.

This is the first in a series of films made between 1937-1952, featuring Arthur Lucan's elderly drag character, and her daughter Kitty. After small roles in the Irish Kathleen Mavourneen (also 1937), Lucan and McShane were approached to star in their own film, Old Mother Riley. The film was cheaply made (it cost £2,000, taking six weeks to shoot) and based on their music hall sketch ‘The Matchseller’. Old Mother Riley was a box office success and Old Mother Riley in Paris soon followed.

Synopsis

In his will, a wealthy match magnate leaves his fortune to his family, the only condition being that they must take in the first person they see selling matches. Very soon they are blessed with the presence of a loud Irish washerwoman, Old Mother Riley. Chaos ensues, as her presence in the household, and that of her daughter, Kitty, proves unwelcome.

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