THEATRE ROYAL

GB
1943
1hr 41mins
Dir: John Baxter
Starring: Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen

A stage hand steps in to save a theatre from financial ruin

This Flanagan and Allen comedy was less musical and more sedate than others, and is quite a charming picture overall. Midway through the film there is a montage of shots as Flanagan and Allen travel the country by train. This contains the following stock images: SR ‘Lord Nelson’ Class 4-6-0 No.854 Howard of Effingham on an express; a former LNWR ‘Claughton’ 4-6-0 on Dillicar Troughs; a close up shot of an LMS ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0; a shot of an unidentified express passing beneath the camera; and another cropped image of a ‘Black Five’ on an express. The interior carriage scene with Bud Flanagan getting fleeced at pontoon used a set.

The journey to Burnley is depicted with a shot of SR ‘Lord Nelson’ No.854 Howard of Effingham on an express. Note the southern electric unit just creeping into shot on the left. This image reappeared as a ‘day for night’ shot in Yellow Canary (also 1943), and then The Rake’s Progress two years later in 1945.
Dundee is depicted with this much used stock image of an LNWR ‘Claughton’ on Dillicar Troughs. This image can also be found in Thunder in the City (1937), The Ware Case (1938), The Common Touch (1941), and Frieda (1947).
This cropped image of a ‘Black Five’ on its way to Swansea appeared in They Met in the Dark, also released in 1943
An unidentified express heads for Plymouth
This second shot of a ‘Black Five’, seemingly off to nowhere in particular, can also be found in They Met in the Dark