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Those Were the Days Reviews

1934
1 hr 20 mins
Music, Comedy
NR

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A farce based on Arthur Wing Pinero's play 'The Magistrate' in which the son (John Mills) of a stern magistrate (Will Hay) visits a music hall against the wishes of his father. In true farcical style, the magistrate too ends up at the music hall, and before long all the characters are trying not to avoid each other... Mainly notable (a) because of its depiction of the music hall as seen by a generation which knew it intimately (b) because of its use of music hall acts of the time and (c) because

Music hall star Will Hay made his first entry on the screen with this energetic adaptation of the popular stage play. Hay stars as a very proper magistrate who is married to Hoey, a woman he thinks is much younger than she is. To keep her age from him, Hoey dresses her 20-year-old son, Mills, as a much younger boy. After a riotous music hall party, Hay discovers the truth about his family, accepting them as they are. An early performance for Mills who was, surprisingly, 26 years old in this picture and trying very hard to look younger.