Boys Will Be Girls (1938)

Hmmm. Leslie Fuller ("Bill") cut his teeth on the stage and his abilities didn't really transfer so well to the big screen in this really rather formulaic slapstick affair that rarely raises a smile, much less any guffaws! He is an henpecked gent, married to the rather severe looking Toni Edgar-Bruce, who comes into an inheritance from his long lost aunt. The condition is, though, that he must abstain from smoking, drinking or anything else that might be considered naughty else he loses the whole lot to the ghastly "Bertha Luff" (Nellie Wallace). When his wife has to go away for a weekend, she inadvertently sets the cat amongst the pigeons and temptation is waved under the nose of her husband, much to the delight of the beneficiary in waiting. It's not rotten, just nothing original. The pace is fine, the production basic and the characterisations - well he just reminded me of a poor man's Stanley Holloway for much of the time, and Wallace like she was auditioning (two years early) for the part of "Miss Gulch". Kills an hour, but there are better way so to do!