UK, 1944
88m, 7943 feet, 2421 metres
35mm film, black and white, 1.37:1
mono, English
A British fantasy film directed by Walter Forde.
Plot Summary
Tommy invents a time machine which whisks him back to the Elizabethan era.
Credits
* = uncredited
Crew
Directed by: Walter Forde
General Film Distributors Ltd. [logo]. Gainsborough Pictures present a Gainsborough Pictures picture
Produced by: Edward Black
An Original Screenplay by: J.O.C. Orton, Ted Kavanagh, Howard Irving Young
Photography: Basil Emmott
Editing: R.E. Dearing
Incidental Music: Bretton Byrd
Sound Supervision: B.C. Sewell
Costumes: Doris Lee *
Make-Up: W. Partleton *
Hairdressing: Biddy Chrystal *
Special Effects: Jack Whitehead *
Art Direction: John Bryan
Cast
Tommy Handley (Tommy)
Evelyne Dall (Susie Barton)
George Moon (Bill Barton)
Felix Aylmer (the professor)
Moore Marriott (a soothsayer)
Graham Moffatt (his nephew)
John Salew (William Shakespeare)
Leslie Bradley (Capt. Walter Raleigh)
Olga Lindo (Queen Elizabeth)
Roy Emerton (Capt. John Smith)
Iris Lang (Princess Pocohontas)
Stephane Grapelly (a troubadour)
Lloyd Pearson *
Leigh Underhill *
Pete Murray *
Nicholas Stuart *
Glyn Rowlands *
Links
Extracts included in
Screen Test: 13 November 1973
Press
1944
The Manchester Guardian 26 February 1944
Tommy Handley’s farcical fluency may not sound like film stuff, but it screens very well in “Time Flies” […] Hitherto radio and gramophone seemed to reproduce that awful eloquence with superb ease; it was aural rather than visual art, if it could be called art at all. Devotees of “Itma” will be able to decide for themselves during the frenzied course of “Time Flies” […] Much of the success is due to the direction of Walter Forde, who has always shown a genius for handling this kind of material. The margin between such a triumph and failure is infinitesimal. – from an uncredited review
The Times 28 February 1944
Time Flies, an extravagant cross between The Time Machine and A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur, sets Mr. Tommy Handley and his company down in medieval London, and while they are there, they preserve the preposterous unities of the situation. Mr. Handley keeps his flat cap, his overcoat, the slang and manner of his own twentieth-century personality, but he does not forget that it is Queen Elizabeth to whom he is teaching the pea and thimble trick. In a word, he works within the pattern of the script, and the film as a whole gains immeasurably There are some extremely amusing moments, as when Miss Evelyn Dall, a vivacious actress with something of the Hollywood glitter, tells a perplexed but delighted Shakespeare how to work the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. Generally Time Flies, which includes one brilliant sequence conceived in terms of pure cinema, is a vast improvement on the recent run of our film comedies. – from an uncredited review
References
Periodicals
- Kinematograph Weekly vol.312 no.1871 (28 February 1943) p.25(UK) – note (British Studios: Handley’s first venture in fantasy)
- Kinematograph Weekly vol.312 no.1872 (4 March 1943) p.30 – note (British Studios: “Time Flies” with Tommy Handley)
- Kinematograph Weekly vol.312 no.1873 (11 March 1943) p.45 – note (British Studios: “Time Flies” in third week)
- Kinematograph Weekly vol.312 no.1874 (18 March 1943) p.31 – note (British Studios: Tommy Goes Tudor: Evelyn in a beard)
- Kinematograph Weekly vol.312 no.1875 (25 March 1943) p.37 – illustration
- Kinematograph Weekly no.1923 (24 February 1944) – review
- Literature/Film Quarterly vol.30 no.3 (2002) pp.158-165 – illustrated article
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.11 no.123 (March 1944) p.28 (UK) – credits, review
- Motion Picture Herald vol.154 no.12 (18 March 1944) – review
- Today’s Cinema vol.62 no.4998 (23 February 1944) – review
Newspapers
- The Manchester Guardian 26 February 1944 – review (writer not credited)
- The Times 28 February 1944 – review
Books
- The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction by Phil Hardy (ed) p.114
- British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928-1959 by David Quinlan p.253 – credits, synopsis
- Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.493 – credits
