British Comedy Guide

Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952)

"Vampire Over London" the Yank title, it's a typically daft comedy with Arthur Lucan doing yet again his silly woman (Old) Mother Riley (apparently his last as this character in film according to the IMDb, and the only one without his "daughter", played by his wife - they had a bitter divorce in 1951) with the fading star of Bela Lugosi as the vampire of course, and a film that was being shown for the Dora Bryan Day on TPTV and of course she had quite a major part in it.

A number of faces in this which I didn't all recognise (were their short bits cut out?) - quite a diverse group of Hattie Jacques, Richard Wattis, John Le Mez, Graham Moffat, Dandy Nichols and Charles Lloyd Pack.

Very dated but interesting to see the stars on their way up.

Never liked the old mother Riley character. What I do find strange is how most of these old films have different titles in America

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 20th October 2019, 11:39 PM

A number of faces in this which I didn't all recognise (were their short bits cut out?) - quite a diverse group of Hattie Jacques, Richard Wattis, John Le Mez, Graham Moffat, Dandy Nichols and Charles Lloyd Pack.

Just had a thought - I wonder of Richard and Hattie when on the "Sykes" set ever discussed this film, and what they said about it. Also was this when Hattie and John Le Mez got together?

No, they married in 1949, they met in Educating Archie, according to Wikipedia (not that it's reliable...) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Le_Mesurier

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 21st October 2019, 2:40 PM

Just had a thought - I wonder of Richard and Hattie when on the "Sykes" set ever discussed this film, and what they said about it. Also was this when Hattie and John Le Mez got together?

According to the biographies of both John Le Mesurier (Do You Think That's Wise by Graham McCann) and Hattie Jacques (Hattie by Andy Merriman), they first met at "The Players'", where Hattie was performing her Music Hall routine, in the summer of 1947. They married in 1949.

Old Mother Riley" after seeing the first 10 mins after that song in the shop and then the Bloke in the coffin that was it for me. I just had to turn it off. I know it's old music hall comedy magic and Arthur Lucan was really married to Kitty in real life. and am sorry if I sound I have got it all wrong. My gran used to tell me stuff of the old days. He played the old woman just as you would imagine but we also loved the biggest female impressionist Danny La Rue.

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