British Comedy Guide
Keep Your Seats, Please!. George Withers (George Formby). Copyright: Associated Talking Pictures / STUDIOCANAL
Keep Your Seats, Please!

Keep Your Seats, Please!

  • 1937 film

A large inheritance is secreted in one of a set of chairs: when they are separated for auction, intended recipient George Withers embarks on a hunt to find the valuable one. Stars George Formby, Florence Desmond, Gus McNaughton, Harry Tate, Alastair Sim and more.

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Keep Your Seats, Please!. Image shows from L to R: Mr. A.S. Drayton (Alastair Sim), George Withers (George Formby), Max (Gus McNaughton), Florrie (Florence Desmond), Binkie (Binkie Stuart). Copyright: Associated Talking Pictures / STUDIOCANAL

Key details

Genre
Film
Released
1937
Stars
George Formby, Florence Desmond, Gus McNaughton, Harry Tate, Alastair Sim, Enid Stamp-Taylor, Hal Gordon, Tom Payne and more
Writers
Ilya Ilf, Yevgeni Petrov, Anthony Kimmins, Tom Geraghty and Ian Hay
Director
Monty Banks
Producer
Basil Dean
Company

Upon her death, Georgina Withers bequeaths all of her financial estate to a series of good causes, with her possessions to be sold at auction. There is just one small exception: a letter, for her nephew George.

As the rest of their grasping relatives storm out of the reading of her will in anger, black sheep of the family George receives the letter and is startled by its contents. As he's the only one of the clan not to have attempted to gain her favour, she's stashed a hoard of jewellery and bonds inside one of her grand dining chairs - all he has to do is go to the auction and buy them!

Penniless, thrown out by his landlady, and finding himself forming an unlikely allegiance with the similarly poor young woman (and her niece) who have been let his former room, George duly attends the auction and wins the lot - but a quarrel ensues when they ask him to pay before he receives the goods!

Unable to fork out even the relatively tiny £16 sum he's bid, the chairs are split and sold as individual lots. George determines to trace down each and every one, but he'll still need some financial backing to do so. Unfortunately the family solicitor turns out to be the very last man he can trust, and so begins a race against time to find the chairs, and the loot, before anyone else!

Additional details

UK certificate
U
Duration
82 minutes
UK release
Monday 15th March 1937
Distributors

Associated British Film Distribution

Production
Studio
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Black and white

Website links

Broadcast details

All previous repeats
  • Friday 7th June 2024 at 1:10pm on TPTV
  • Thursday 1st February 2024 at 3:10pm on TPTV
  • Thursday 23rd November 2023 at 3:10pm on TPTV

Recording details

  • A.T.P. Studios

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