Those Were the Days | |
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Directed by | Thomas Bentley |
Produced by | Walter C. Mycroft |
Written by | Jack Jordan Frank Launder Frederick A. Thompson |
Starring |
Will Hay Iris Hoey Angela Baddeley Claud Allister George Graves John Mills |
Cinematography | Otto Kanturek |
Edited by | Edward B. Jarvis |
Release date
|
April 1934 |
Running time
|
80 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Those Were the Days is a 1934 British film primarily remembered as Will Hay's first major screen role. It was based on Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's 1885 farce The Magistrate and was the first of two Hay movies based on Pinero's plays, the other being Dandy Dick. The movie also featured music hall acts of the time - acts of a type rarely committed to film.
Strait-laced Magistrate Brutus Poskett (Will Hay) is concerned that his wife (Iris Hoey) may be older than he believes her to be, especially as his young stepson (John Mills) seems very precocious for an apparently fifteen-year-old boy.
Mrs Poskett tries to stop an upcoming visit from her first husband's friend (Claud Allister), who knows her true age, by confronting him at a local music hall. However, unbeknownst to her, Poskett has also been convinced to go to the music hall with his "adolescent" stepson and, in an ensuing melee, Poskett's wife and her sister are arrested.
The following day, Poskett sentences both to seven days imprisonment, failing to recognise them as they are heavily veiled.