Me and Marlborough

Me and Marlborough is a 1935 British comedy film, directed by Victor Saville, and starring Cicely Courtneidge, Tom Walls, Barry MacKay, Peter Gawthorne, Henry Oscar and Cecil Parker.^[1]

Me and Marlborough
Opening title card
Directed by	Victor Saville
Written by	Marjorie Gaffney Ian Hay W. P. Lipscomb Reginald Pound
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Starring	Cicely Courtneidge Tom Walls Barry MacKay
Cinematography	Curt Courant Charles Van Enger
Edited by	Michael Gordon
Music by	Louis Levy Jack Beaver
Production company	Gaumont British
Distributed by	Gaumont British Distributors
Release date	25 July 1935 (1935-07-25)
Running time	84 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Plot

Sergeant Cummings searches Kit Ross's pub for a deserter drummer boy. When he finds the lad, Kit leads the pub patrons in attacking the sergeant's men, and the young man gets away, for which she is put in stocks. While there, she plans her impending wedding to Dick Welch. However, Cummings gets his revenge. On the night of the wedding, he tricks Dick into taking a shilling, which means he has enlisted in the army. She watches as a ship takes him to the fighting. Undaunted, she disguises herself as a man named Simon and joins up with the Duke of Marlborough's army in Flanders to find her missing husband.^[2][3]

Cast

• Cicely Courtneidge as Kit Ross
• Tom Walls as Duke of Marlborough
• Barry MacKay as Dick Welch
• Alfred Drayton as Sergeant Bull
• Iris Ashley as Josephine
• Ivor McLaren as Sergeant Cummings
• Gibb McLaughlin as Old soldier
• Peter Gawthorne as Staff Colonel
• Cecil Parker as Colonel of the Greys
• George Merritt as Harley
• Cyril Smith as Corporal Fox
• Mickey Brantford as Ensign Coke
• Randle Ayrton as King Louis XIV
• Henry Oscar as Goultier
• Percy Walsh as Naylor
• Donald Calthrop as Drunken Yokel

Reception

Writing for The Spectator, Graham Greene criticised the theatrical qualities of Courtneidge's performance, claiming that "I found myself too embarrassed by Miss Courtneidge's facial contortions to appreciate their share. Miss Courtneidge is used to throwing her effects to the back row of a theatre gallery, and the camera is not kind to her exaggerations".^[4]

References

1. "Me and Marlborough (1935)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
2. "BFI | Film & TV Database | ME AND MARLBOROUGH (1935)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 April 2009. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
3. "Me and Marlborough | Britmovie | Home of British Films". Britmovie. Archived from the original on 27 November 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
4. Greene, Graham (6 September 1935). "Dood Wasser/Me and Marlborough". The Spectator. (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. p. 19. ISBN 0192812866.)