WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD (1936 - UK)
Script by Douglas Furber and Austin Parker, directed by Jack Raymond
Musical Numbers by Harry Perritt, George Windeatt, Maurice Sigler, Al Goodhart, Al Hoffman
Cinematographer: Freddie Young
Produced by Capitol Film Corporation
Cast:
Jack Buchanan Sir Guy De Vere
Fay Wray Lady Rowena
Garry Marsh Brian Ballymote
Kate Cutler Aunt Agatha
Martita Hunt Aunt Esther
Robert Horton Cousin Bertie
Aubrey Mather The Canon
Aubrey Fitzgerald Barker, the butler
Robert Nainby Whittle, the 'boy'
Moore Marriott The Tramp
Charles Paton The Mayor
Barry Fitzgerald
Terry-Thomas
Michael Wilding
Runtime: 76 min
BFI synopsis: “Sir Guy de Vere inherits his father’s estate only to be greeted with hostility from the rest of the family when he goes to live in the family's ancestral home.”




	The 1936 version of When Knights Were Bold is available here.




	Fay Wray and Jack Buchanan. Fay Wray as Lady Rowena. Jack Buchanan as Sir Guy in full armour.





		The 1936 film contained several musical numbers: ‘I’m Still Dreaming’ and ‘Let’s Put Some People To Work’ by Al Goodhart, Al Hoffman and Maurice Sigler, and ‘Forward, Onward We Go’. Jack Buchanan singing “Lets Put Some People To Work” from When Knights Were Bold. ___ The Daily Mirror (31 October, 1935 - p.8)

Picturegoer Weekly (14 December, 1935 - p.34)

(p.36)

[Only one item concerning When Knights Were Bold, but there’s some other interesting bits on this page.]

Picturegoer Weekly (18 January, 1936 - p.31)

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (21 February, 1936 - p.34)

(p.41)

Daily Express (21 February, 1936 - p.4)

ANYTHING this local farmyard product has it owes to the presence of Jack Buchanan.
   I don’t know whose idea it was to make the famous Christmas kiddie-comedy into a musical talkie. But, granting the premise that it had to be, and nobody could do a thing about it, Jack was the man to play Sir Guy de Vere.
   He still has that easy-going charm which has steered him through many an ill-written scene without a tomato being thrown. He needs all of it here.
   The producers of the film have gone to a lot of trouble and expense to make it what they doubtless regard as cinematic. That is to say that, blanched with terror of critical too-much-dialogue onslaughts, they have added a lot of scenes not in the play, in which people rush about a good deal (injecting action).
   They start off with a scene in Poona, introduced by a map in case you thought it was just a new American abbreviation of piano-tuner.
   Then there are big fight scenes showing the attack on the castle during the dream sequence, and an extremely peculiar procession of medieval knights on variously shaped bicycles. Apart from the stock “Gadzooks!” jokes, this is about the only attempt to capitalise on the possibilities here presented for rich anachronistic comedy.
   In spite of its laudable effort to put more action into a fairly static play, the film script is a rare triumph of unimaginativeness.

___

The Times (24 February, 1936 - p.10)

LONDON PAVILION
When Knights Were Bold.—The trouble with the films in which Mr. Jack Buchanan appears is that they have no imaginative ambitions. It is obvious that in this musical version of the farce made famous by the late Mr. Bromley Challenor a lot of time and money have been spent on the dream sequences which show Sir Guy de Vere (Mr. Buchanan) back in the Middle Ages, but the only reflection they leave is that they are allowed to go on far too long and that if they are intended as satire on such films as The Crusaders they should have more point and venom. Lack of imagination again, and it is a thousand pities that Mr. Buchanan, who potentially has so much to give to light comedy, is content with films worthy of a player with a quarter of his talents. There are moments, especially at the beginning, as Sir Guy is finding exactly how difficult and feudal his relations can be, when the film breaks into something like freshness and invention—there is one good song which finished disappointingly soon. Miss Fay Wray takes the part of the Lady Rowena with a surprising and triumphant seriousness, but it is not enough, and When Knights Were Bold still leaves Mr. Buchanan in search of his film.

___

The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (24 April, 1936 - p.35)

Evening Post (Wellington, New Zealand) (4 July, 1936)

TIVOLI THEATRE

With the coming of every Buchanan picture to the screen, the public are immediately on tip-toe with expectancy for some new, real song hits, and they will certainly not be disappointed in Jack’s latest success, “When Knights Were Bold,” which is the main attraction at the Tivoli Theatre. Two of the numbers which enhance the entertainment value of the film are “I’m Still Dreaming” and “Let’s Put Some People to Work,” sung in Jack’s own inimitable breezy style. “When Knights Were Bold” gives an intimate glimpse of Buchanan’s own favourite style of acting, as the producers, Capitol Films, gave him free rein in selecting the story for this, his first “World Standard” production, and he has chosen a mirthful mix-up, brimful of laughs, riotously funny situations, spicy interludes, and catchy songs. The exploits of a New York star reporter who assists the police in solving a mysterious crime, only to find himsslf in jeopardy, are vividly depicted in the second feature, “The Murder Man,” starring Spencer Tracy, with Virginia Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, and Robert Barratt.

___

Picturegoer Weekly (12 September, 1936 - p.28)

** WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD

General Film Distributors. British. “U” certificate. Comedy burlesque. Runs 75 minutes.

JACK BUCHANAN..........................................Sir Guy de Vere
FAY WRAY...........................................................Lady Rowena
GARRY MARSH.................................................Brian Ballymote
KATE CUTLER........................................................Aunt Agatha
MARTITA HUNT.......................................................Aunt Esther
ROBERT HORTON.................................................Cousin Bertie
AUBREY MATHER.....................................................The Canon
AUBREY FITZGERALD....................................................Barker
ROBERT NAINBY............................................................Whistle
MOORE MARRIOTT...................................................The Tramp
CHARLES PATON......................................................The Mayor

Directed by Jack Raymond. Previewed March 7 1936.

Since this farce was first staged, twenty-nine years ago, it has become as internationally famous as Charley’s Aunt, and few people do not know the story of Sir Guy de Vere, who finds himself back in the Middle Ages and has many hilarious adventures with the people whose lineal descendants are his own friends and contemporaries.
   In this version Jack Buchanan, who plays de Vere, is well served with a part to which he suits himself admirably, and he extracts enough humour, to say nothing of dancing and singing, out of it to satisfy his fans completely. There is plenty of broad, obvious humour in this version, which has several additions to the stage production, and director Jack Raymond has been most successful, especially with the mediæval sequences, which are richly colourful and spectacular.
   The action moves along at a good round pace, and even if some of the later scenes lack a little of the pep of the first sequences, there are few, if any, dull moments.
   Fay Wray, as the Lady Rowena, is somewhat stilted, but Kate Cutler and Martita Hunt are both excellent as her aunts; and good performances come from Garry Marsh, as Brian Ballymote, and Moore Marriott, as the tramp.

___

Picturegoer Weekly (23 October, 1937 - p.13)

[An article about Jack Raymond, the director of the 1936 version of When Knights Were Bold.]

The New York Times (31 March, 1942)

THE SCREEN

Ancient Accident

WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD, adapted by Douglas Furber and Austin Parkes from the play by Charles Marlowe; directed by Jack Raymond; produced in England by Capitol Films. At the Little Carnegie Playhouse.

Sir Guy de Vere . . . . . Jack Buchanan
Lady Rowena . . . . . . . . . . .Fay Wray
Brian Ballynote . . . . . . . Garry Marsh
Aunt Agatha . . . . . . . . . . .Kate Cutler
Aunt Esther . . . . . . . . . . Martitia Hunt
Cousin Bertie . . . . . . . .Robert Horton
The Tramp . . . . . . . . .Moore Marriott

By BOSLEY CROWTHER

   The Little Carnegie Playhouse refuses to let cold turkeys lie, and again it has raided the ice-box for another relic from a British studio, which it is offering to local audiences as though it were just grabbed off the roost. You may rest assured it wasn't. It is all of six years old—this exceedingly moldy farce-comedy entitled “When Knights Were Bold”—and the only cleverness which it betokens is that of the exhibitors who have previously passed it up.
   It is, to state it briefly, a pointless trifle, a minor vaudeville skit, in which Jack Buchanan, pretending to be an English baronet, has a difficult time comprehending the feudal posing of some pompous relatives. Then he gets conked on the head and dreams the time is 1400, which gives rise to such gags as the following - Halberdier: “What’s afoot?” Buchanan: “Twelve inches, I think.” And, after some aimless aping of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” the time switches back to the present—or rather, to 1936—and Mr. Buchanan espouses the beautiful Lady Rowena, who is merely Fay Wray.
   If the Little Carnegie is anxious to show none but British product, why doesn’t it play in revival some really memorable films? We can think of two dozen British pictures such as “The Ghost Goes West,” “South Riding,” “To the Victor” and “Drums,” not to mention the Hitchcock classics, which most certainly retain their appeal. Why expose a blunder which had better be forgot?

___

New York Post (31 March, 1942 - p.11)

Movie Talk
By Archer Winston

“When Knights Were Bold”
Opens at Little Carnegie

A Capitol Picture. Directed by Jack Raymond. Screenplay by Douglas Furber and Austin Parkes. From the play by Charles Marlowe.

THE CAST:
Sir Guy de Vere . . . . . Jack Buchanan
Lady Rowena . . . . . . . . . . Fay Wray
Brian Ballynote . . . . . . . Garry Marsh
Aunt Agatha . . . . . . . . . . Kate Cutler
Aunt Esther . . . . . . . . . . Martitia Hunt
Cousin Bertie . . . . . . . Robert Horton
The Tramp . . . . . . . . Moore Marriott

   “The amazing thing,” writes the Little Carnegie Playhouse in its current program, “is not that beleaguered Great Britain is continuing to turn out films, despite war-time difficulties, but that they can be so light-hearted and gay, so full of that irresistible spirit that says ‘Yes’ to life that must ultimately confound their enemies. An arch-typical example of this is Jack Buchanan’s latest musical screen comedy, ‘When Knights Were Bold,’ etc.”
   One of the many things wrong with that statement is that the picture, now on view at the Little Carnegie, was produced in 1936, even before England had got around to appeasement. Moreover, the “light-hearted, gay, irresistible spirit” stems from one of the least appealing fountains of British comedy. To put it bluntly, this is a musty, moth-eaten vehicle which was not good even in its own day, which was six years ago. In 1922 the fable had a success in the silent films, and back in the dim days it was a success on the stage.
   Exactly why the Little Carnegie Theatre feels called upon at this time to be exhuming old and inferior British pictures is a puzzle. It does not improve Anglo-American relations. It cannot enrich either British distributors or the American exhibitors. Possibly it is a method of keeping open one of the most pleasant little motion picture theatres in town. If that is the purpose, a program of the better British documentaries would serve as well and prove less excruciating to the audience.
   As for “When Knights Were Bold,” let us forget in the certain knowledge that another week will find it safely back in the can with no other runs in prospect. “Fighting The Fire Bomb” is also on the program. Now let us review what we have learned.

___

The New York Sun (31 March, 1942 - p.23)

The New Movie
_____

‘When Knights Were Bold,’ Dreary English Farce.
_____

By EILEEN CREELMAN.

   Humor, even more than romance, is highly perishable. It differs so markedly in different countries that attempts to transport it are often disastrous. The Little Carnegie Playhouse now is showing one of these lesser disasters, “When Knights Were Bold.” This is typical English musical comedy fun. In the United States it seems merely silly.
   Jack Buchanan, British dancing star, sticks to comedy and a bit of singing in “When Knights Were Bold.” In regulation London vaudeville style, he sees to it that no one misses the point of any joke, even if he has to bludgeon the audience into laughing at it. Yesterday afternoon an American audience failed to laugh even then.
   Puns supply much of the comedy, such as there is. Mr. Buchanan plays an army officer returned to England from India when he inherits a castle and title. He finds some aunts and cousins awaiting him grimly at home. They are far from pleased that he has inherited. Only one cousin, a stuffy young person who tries to conceal her sense of humor, is even civil. The new Sir Guy carries on light-heartedly, even dreams of more romantic days, when chivalry was more than a word. The ending is quite as dull as the beginning and the middle, too.
   “When Knights Were Bold” has all the evidence of age, as age goes in the movie world. The Little Carnegie attaches no date to the film. Costumes, dialogue and photography make the film appear to be 3 or 4 years old. Fay Wray, very pretty indeed, plays the stuffy young cousin.

Grahame N’s Web Pages has some additional information about the film, and there’s a review on Dave Sindelar’s Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings site:

“The heir to an ancestral home returns from India to meet his family for the first time. He discovers they are all stiff and joyless, but he falls for his cousin, the Lady Rowena.You know, some of these movies really do leave me scratching my head when I try to decide whether they rightfully belong in the fantastic movie genres or not, and this is one of them. The basic plot of this musical-comedy certainly doesn't give any indication of having a fantastic premise, and for most of the movie I was wondering what would come up. However, the last third of the movie consists of a dream sequence in which our hero ends up in the middle ages and must defend the castle against an onslaught of invaders. It's here that the comedy really takes an anarchic turn, and the question becomes whether outrageous anarchic comedy qualifies as fantastic cinema. However, scenes in which the knights come riding in on bizarre bicycles, and a series of gags involving magnets both push this into the realm of fantasy, so I guess it does qualify to some extent. The movie itself is quite amusing and very British. Barry Fitzgerald and Terry-Thomas both appear somewhere in this movie, though I wouldn't be able to point them out.”

I also came across the following in the William K. Everson Archive at the New York University. It’s a copy of the programme notes for a showing of the film on September 28th, 1970 at the Theodore Huff Memorial Film Society:

In Fay Wray’s autobiography, On The Other Hand, the film is mentioned in the following passage:

“A second film with Jack Buchanan was produced by Herbert Wilcox, who arranged the very best contract I ever had. It was totally uncomplicated, not a ‘whereas’ or ‘in the event’ or any kind of legal phrasing. All on one page, it stipulated salary and billing only. Jack, of course, was to have billing over me. When the film, When Knights Were Bold, was finished and was about to be shown in Piccadilly Circus, Vincent Sheehan had come to town. He and John and I were en route to dinner at Boulestin’s in the Strand. I saw workmen putting up lights on the huge marquee of the theater, my name on top of everything. I knew that was wrong but I enjoyed my dinner thoroughly. I had never had a French red wine before: Nuit Saint George. A lovely nuit for me! By the time we passed the theater on our return taxi ride, my lovely nuit was over. Jack Buchanan’s name was up there where mine had been. I wondered if he, too, might have been dining in the Strand that night!”

Swedish poster for Bland Balde Riddersman designed by Gosta Aberg (1905-1981):

Spanish posters for Frac en la Edad Media (“A Tailcoat in the Middle Ages”):

$unfracedad1$

$fracedad2$

[The Longford Cinema in Stretford, Manchester, February 1937.]

And, just when you think you’ve found everything online connected to the 1936 version of When Knights Were Bold, you come across this on ebay:

‘PAIR OF ORIGINAL 1936 16MM CINEMA MOVIE SOUND REELS FOR "WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD"

£395.00

or Best Offer’

From the seller’s description:

‘Royal House Antiques is delighted to offer for sale this super rare pair of original 16mm Sound Reels playing the 1936 movie “When Knights Were Bold” reel 1 and 2.
A super collectable pair for any cinema buff, the cases occasionally come up for sale but never with the actual movie reels inside
The condition is period perfect as you can see. ...

Dimensions
Height:- 35cm
Width:- 35cm
Depth:- 2.5cm
Please note all measurements are taken at the widest point, if you would like any additional or specific measurements please ask

When Knights Were Bold is a 1936 British musical comedy film directed by Jack Raymond and starring Jack Buchanan, Fay Wray and Garry Marsh.[1] Songs include "Let's Put the People To Work" sung by Jack Buchanan, "Onward We Go" sung by Buchanan & soldiers' chorus, and "I'm Still Dreaming" sung by Buchanan. ...’

_____

When Knights Were Bold - The Films continued

or back to When Knights Were Bold main menu

Home
Biography
Bibliography

Poetry
Plays
Fiction

Essays
Reviews
Letters

The Fleshly School Controversy
Buchanan and the Press
Buchanan and the Law

The Critical Response
Harriett Jay
Miscellanea

Links
Site Diary
Site Search