My Wife's Lodger

My Wife's Lodger
Dominic Roche and Diana Dors
Directed byMaurice Elvey
Written byStafford Dickens
Dominic Roche (play)
Produced byDavid Dent
StarringDominic Roche
Olive Sloane
Leslie Dwyer
Diana Dors
CinematographyPhil Grindrod
Les Harris
Edited byLito Carruthers
Music byFrancis Essex
Production
company
Advance Films
Distributed byAdelphi Films
Release date
  • October 1952 (1952-10)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

My Wife's Lodger is a 1952 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Dominic Roche, Olive Sloane and Leslie Dwyer.[1][2] It was written by Stafford Dickens based on the 1951 play My Wife's Lodger by Roche.[3][4]

Plot

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Willie Higginbotham is a soldier who returns home after the Second World War only to find a spiv lodger has established himself in his place.[5][6]

Cast

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Production

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Filming took place in May 1952.[citation needed] It was one of a series of low budget comedies Dors made around this time.[7]

Critical reception

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The Monthly Film Bulletin said "this comedy runs through a repertoire of farcical situations of the most ancient variety. The playing does not lack energy but the music-hall style jokes – domestic bickering, mothers-in-law and so on – become very exhausting."[8]

Kine Weekly wrote: "Riotous "rough and ready" low life comedy, suggested by the stage success. ... There are no new jokes, but the shrewdly chosen cast makes the most of the evergreen. Wholesome, though occasionally vulgar, it's certain to tickle the crowd."[9]

The Daily Film Renter (quoted in BFI Screenonline) wrote, "the acting is of the 'Ee-bai-goom' school and the dialogue is the ripe, uninhibited language of the music hall... as briny as jellied eels on Southend Pier."[3]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Few things date quicker than humour and Maurice Elvey's northern farce certainly belongs to another era. ... The humour is broad, the musical interludes dismal, but the cast's enthusiasm is infectious."[10]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Vulgar Northern farce with ancient jokes; enthusiastically played."[11]

TV Guide wrote: "the energy of the ensemble partly makes up for the film's lack of coherence and taste."[12]

References

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  1. ^ "My Wife's Lodger". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
  2. ^ "My Wife's Lodger (1952)". BFI. Archived from the original on 4 December 2017.
  3. ^ a b "BFI Screenonline: My Wife's Lodger (1952)". Screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  4. ^ "My Wife's Lodger." By Dominic Roche (Book Review) Hamilton, Iain. The Spectator; London Vol. 187, Iss. 6422, (Jul 27, 1951): 124.
  5. ^ Frank Collins. "June 2010". Cathode Ray Tube. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  6. ^ "My Wife's Lodger (1953) - Maurice Elvey - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie.
  7. ^ Vagg, Stephen (7 September 2020). "A Tale of Two Blondes: Diana Dors and Belinda Lee". Filmink.
  8. ^ MY WIFE'S LODGER Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 19, Iss. 216, (Jan 1, 1952): 158.
  9. ^ "My Wife's Lodger". Kine Weekly. Vol. 2361, no. 426. 25 September 1952. p. 18 – via ProQuest.
  10. ^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 645. ISBN 9780992936440.
  11. ^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 350. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
  12. ^ "My Wife's Lodger - TV Guide". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016.
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