Douglas Wakefield

Oddly enough for a Roach comedy the premise of MIXED NUTS is grounded in topical political satire aimed at the New Deal, although the satire is of a very lightweight (and light-hearted) nature. The film begins at a city council meeting where an unidentified politician announces that the government has released $50,000 for the relief of unemployed plumbers. This prompts applause, but also a pointed question from an angry woman who wants to know what the government is going to do for the members of her profession: chorus girls. The politician glibly replies that the administration has set aside money—two million dollars, no less!—for the re-education of chorus girls, "to fit them for the better things in life."

Documentary featuring a cavalcade of Northern comedy stars including the great Frank Randle, George Formby, Arthur Askey, Norman Evans and many more. The North of England has always enjoyed its own very particular brand of comedy, best seen today in Coronation Street. 80 years ago however Mancunian Studios produced feature films for the northern masses. Funny Up North tells the story of the Mancunian Studios, its eccentric owner John E Blakeley and its cavalcade of stars including such household names as Arthur Askey, Jimmy Jewell, George Formby and the legendary Frank Randle. Hosted by Professor Chris Lee, the authority on northern cinema, Funny Up North takes you on a journey from its humble beginnings to its sad demise in the 1960s.

Gutsy lass Gracie rallies fellow stall-holders at Birkenhead Market to prevent its takeover and demolition by a department store chain. She invokes the Market's foundation by Royal Charter just before an inadvertent gas leak provides an explosive climax.

Grace Milroy loses her job working at a factory. However, through a strange set of circumstances, she is taken on as housekeeper at the nearby Swinford Castle the home of the eccentric Duchess of Swinford.

'The Penny Pool' (1937) features Duggie Wakefield and his Crazy Gang who come to the assistance of young lovers Tommy Bancroft and Renee Harland, who have been sacked from their jobs for filling in the penny football pools during work hours. But the Crazy Gang's assistance is not always useful!

Will Stanton, drunken host at his own dull dinner party, decides to leave his guests and go out to make whoopee. At a local night club, emcee Eddie Dunn introduces singer Dorothy Granger. Her singing inspires not a single reaction. The dead atmosphere is livened up when Stanton shows up and starts mussing up everybody's hair. It catches on and soon patrons are mussing each other's hair. Stanton goes into the washroom and drunkenly washes two hands - one his and one the attendant's. He takes a bottle of soap back to the dance floor and pours it out, causing all the dancers to fall on their ..well, to fall down. A seltzer spray melee follows and Stanton decides to go home. His dull wife asks Stanton to tell his dull guests if he learned anything out on the town. Stanton picks up a bottle of seltzer and starts spritzing.

A down-and-out Englishman, mistaken for a duke, is invited (for $50.00) to meet the wife of a gangster who is a passenger on a boat chartered by gangsters. When he cannot initially find his wife, the gangster tells the "duke" to remain in his room with his daughter while he finds the wife. Crazy complications ensue!

During World War I, a British farmer is abducted by the Germans to take the place of a spy about to be executed whom he closely resembles.

Patsy is coerced into faking a broken leg in order to win an insurance settlement after an automobile accident.