Ralph Lynn

British actor Ralph Lynn (1882 - 1962) was a tweedy, dark-haired comedian who made a stage career out of playing monocled silly ass twits. He was a veteran performer of London's highly popular Aldwych Repertory Theatre farces, and he and fellow members Tom Walls and Robertson Hare successfully took many of their stylized productions to the big screen in the 1930’s.


British postcard, no. 174. Photo: Capitol Films.


British postcard in Ralph Tuck & Sons' Real Photograph Postcard Series, London, no. 92-S. Photo: Gaumont-British.


British postcard in Ralph Tuck & Sons' Real Photograph Postcard Series, London, no. 30-S. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Monocled Silly Ass
Ralph (pronounced as Rafe) Lynn was born in Manchester, England, in 1882. His elder brother, Gordon James (born Sydney Lynn), would also become an actor and appear in several films with him. Ralph began his acting career in Wigan in 1900 in King of Terrors. After years spent touring regional theatres and a spell in America he made his West End debut in 1915 at the Empire theatre in By Jingo. He joined the popular London Aldwych Theatre, which specialized between 1925 and 1933 in a series of light social comedies. Lynn always played the monocled silly ass. Most of these farces were produced by Tom Walls and Ralph Lynn and written by Ben Travers. They were always performed in the Aldwyn Theatre in London's the Strand, and became immensely popular. The three regular main players - Walls, Lynn and J. Robertson Hare – became popular stars. During the 1930’s they successfully took their very English productions to the cinema. The first of the Aldwych Theater farces to hit the screen was the frantically hilarious Rookery Nook/One Embarrassing Night (1930, Tom Walls). The title refers to a country house where Gerald Popkiss (Ralph Lynn) heads for a good long rest, but then the complications and the fun begin… Hall Erickson notes at AllMovie: “Best bits include the lifeboat drill presided over by the scatterbrained Poppy Dickey (Doreen Bendix) and such dialogue exchanges as ‘I'm a man of peace’/‘You'll be a man of pieces in a minute’. Filmed exactly like a photographed stage play, Rookery Nook is hardly an advance in the art of the cinema, but that doesn't stop it from being unbearably funny.” For the rest of the decade, nearly all of Travers' classic farces were filmed. Lynn appeared in such comedies as A Chance of the Night-Time (1931, Herbert Wilcox, Ralph Lynn) opposite Winifred Shotter. Hal Erickson: “It's Ralph Lynn's show all the way, and he makes the most of every comic opportunity. It would be nice to say that the film's production values were on the same level as the star's performance - nice, and untrue.” Lynn sometimes also co-wrote the scripts or co-directed. For instance, he co-wrote the script of Tons of Money (1931, Tom Walls), in which he played an eccentric inventor opposite Walls and Robertson Hare.


Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls. British postcard.


Ralph Lynn and Winifred Shotter. British postcard in the Film Partners Series by Real Photograph, London, no. 81. Photo: British & Dominions.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series by Real Photograph, London, no. 81. Photo: British & Dominions.

Disputes
Producer Michael Balcon wooed Tom Walls away from rival Herbert Wilcox to sign a contract with Gaumont-British. The three Aldwych Theatre farceurs combined forces again in The Cuckoo in the Nest (1933, Tom Walls), and Fighting Stock (1935, Tom Walls). Janet Moat describes on BFI Screenonline how director Walls worked: “Walls was a major theatrical figure and insisted not only on directing the films himself but also on having the choice and approval of both story and cast. This led to disputes with Balcon for a number of reasons, not least the fact that Walls was a poor film director and didn't always cast the most able players in the lesser roles. There was little attempt to make the films much more than photographed stage plays, and their rhythm and momentum remain theatrical rather than cinematic. The photography is mainly composed of medium and long shots and the close-up is hardly used, certainly in Cuckoo in the Nest (1933), and where a close-up does occur it rarely has the right impact. The action is seen as it would be from a good seat in the theatre stalls. What the film does do is to record three farceurs at the height of their popularity and abilities - the playing is immaculate and still raises the laughs in all the right places, even when the direction is often clumsy and unhelpful.” Lynn appeared again with Walls and Robertson Hare in Foreign Affairs (1935, Tom Walls), which was set on the French Riviera where two upper-class but broke British scroungers (Walls and Lynn) cause havoc in the high society. Pot Luck (1936, Tom Walls) was about a retired Scotland Yard detective (Walls), who harbors a deep resentment for his pompous successor Reggie Bathbrick (Lynn), and returns to take one final case. Hal Erickson about the latter: “As usual, Ben Travers' dialogue is chock full of familiar catch phrases, cleaned-up expletives and hilariously atrocious puns.” Cast as Lynn's pretty daughter was Diana Churchill, in one of her first important screen roles. Lynn’s last film was For Valour (1937, Tom Walls) for Capitol Film. Ralph Lynn died in 1962, in London. He was married to actress Gladys Miles who originally appeared with him in the 1915 production of By Jingo. They had a son, film and TV director Robert Lynn, and a daughter. Film actress Ann Lynn is his granddaughter.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 674 A. Photo: Gaumont-British.


British postcard by Real Photograph in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. 674.


British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London, no. 112.


British postcard by Real Photograph, London, no. 174. Photo: Capitol Films.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Janet Moat (BFI Screenonline), Britmovie.uk, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

Tom Walls

English actor Tom Walls (1883 - 1949) was a popular character player on stage and in films, and also worked as a film director. He is indelibly associated with the popular Aldwych Theatre farces of the 1920’s and 1930’s and was one of the most influential figures in British comedy.

 
British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 175. Photo: Capitol Films.

West End Star
Tom Kirby Walls was born in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, England in 1883. He was the son of a plumber and was educated at Northampton County School. After leaving school, he spent a year in Canada. On his return he was he worked for a brief time as a busker (street entertainer), a jockey and a an officer in the Metropolitan Police Force. After these false starts, he settled on a stage career. In 1905 he made his debut in the pantomime Aladdin in Glasgow. He toured America in 1906 and 1907 and on his return to England, he made his London debut at The Empire Theatre in Sir Roger de Coverley (1907). He remained at the Empire (as well as touring) in musical comedy for the next two years. By 1912 he was firmly established as a West End star. He had a principal role in the musical Kissing Time (1919) and in Whirled into Happiness (1922). In 1922, Walls also co-produced with Leslie Henson the farce Tons of Money at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The farce, in which he also starred, ran for two years. He made an early foray into the cinema co-producing the film version of Tons of Money (1924, Frank Hall Crane), though he didn't reprise his role. For their next project, It Pays to Advertise, they moved to the Aldwych Theatre. Thus they inaugurated the Aldwych Farce series of comedies in which silly upper-class twits become entangled with inconvenient young ladies just as all the suspicious wives, battleaxe mothers-in-law and henpecked husbands show up at once. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: “As the star and producer of a succession of witty spoofs typically denigrating society's upper crust, he often played the slick cad. Written expertly by Ben Travers and in tandem with fellow comic extraordinaires Ralph Lynn and Robertson Hare, the shows were chock full of sight gags, puns, double entendres and slapstick.” The farces featured an ensemble cast that also included Leslie Henson, Yvonne Arnaud, Mary Brough, Winifred Shotter, Claude Hulbert and others.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons in the Real Photograph series, no. 178. Photo: Gaumont-British.


British postcard by Raphael Tuck & Sons in the Real Photograph series, no. 94. Photo: Gaumont-British.

Madcap Nonsense
When sound film arrived, Tom Walls moved his focus away from the theatre and into films. He functioned as both star and director in the first Aldwych-produced farce transferred to the cinema, Rookery Nook (1930, Tom Walls) co-starring Ralph Lynn and Winifred Shotter. The madcap nonsense was a smash box-office success. So several of their classic stage shows were filmed, including Plunder (1931, Tom Walls), A Night Like This (1932, Tom Walls), Thark (1932, Tom Walls), Turkey Time (1933, Tom Walls), A Cuckoo in the Nest (1933, Tom Walls), Dirty Work (1934, Tom Walls) and A Cup of Kindness (1934, Tom Walls). More or less all of them were presented as photographed plays. Walls directed seventeen films till 1938, and acted in most of them. In 1937 he and Ralph Lynn were voted the seventh most popular British stars by local exhibitors. He directed his last film towards the end of the 1930’s, Old Iron (1938, Tom Walls) with Eva Moore. When the economics of the industry changed with the new Cinematography Act, Walls went back to the theatre. He returned to films as an actor only. His career waned following the decade, but he was still seen in a number of films, both comedic and touchingly dramatic. In the war film Undercover (1943, Sergei Nolbandov), he played the father of a guerrilla resistance leader (John Clements) in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Walls continued to act as a character actor until his death, essaying a variety of twinkle-eyed old scoundrels. His final film was the thriller The Interrupted Journey (1949, Daniel Birt) starring Valerie Hobson. His great passion outside of show business was horses. His productions had made him very rich and by 1927 he had his own racing stable. He moved to Ewell, Epsom, home of The Epsom Derby and triumphed there in 1932 with his colt April the Fifth which he trained himself. In all he trained about 150 winners (total wins) up until 1948. He was also a regular rider with his local foxhounds. However this expensive hobby took its toll and by the time of his death he was insolvent. At 66, Tom Walls passed away in 1949 in his home near Edwell, England. He was married to Hilary Edwards. With their son, Tom Walls Jr., he made two on-screen appearances, Spring in Park Lane (1948, Herbert Wilcox) and Maytime in Mayfair (1949, Herbert Wilcox), both starring Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding.


British postcard. With Ralph Lynn.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 418. Photo: Herbert Wilcox Production / British Lion. Publicity still for Spring in Park Lane (1948, Herbert Wilcox) with Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), David Absalom (British Pictures), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Winifred Shotter

British film actress Winifred Shotter (1904 – 1996) was the pretty young thing in a number of the popular Aldwych farces, which were staged in London before and during the Second World War. During the 1930’s, she also performed in early British films with great success.


British postcard in the Colourgraph Series, London, no. C 146.


British postcard in the Film Partners Series by Real Photograph, London, no. 81. Photo: British & Dominions.

Aldwych Farces
Winifred Florence Shotter was born in London in 1904. She was the daughter of Frederick Ernest Shotter and Harriet Payne Shotter. Her father worked as a tie cutter. She was the sister of the actress Constance Shotter. Winifred  got her big break in the early 1920’s when she was pulled from a chorus line to play Rhoda Marley in the farce comedy Rookery Nook by Ben Travers. She would go on to appear in a number of what became known as the Aldwych farces popular at London’s Aldwych Theatre. These plays, written by Travers, usually revolved around a misunderstanding, borrowed clothes and dropped trousers. The first was in 1925. Shotter appeared in Rookery Nook (1926), Thark (1927), Plunder (1928), A Cup of Kindness (1929) and Turkey Time (1931). Molly Weir wrote in an obituary of Shotter in The Independent in 1996: “Shotter was appearing at the Aldwych Theatre as an enchanting ‘flapper’ who had to be hidden for fear of discovery by prim visiting relatives, and she sent the house into screams of warning appreciative laughter as she raced downstairs from the bedroom and across the stage clad only in exquisitely revealing pink crepe-de-Chine camiknickers. Her ladylike terror as she reacted to Robertson Hare's horrified cries of ‘Oh calamity!’ enchanted the audience; Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls aided and abetted the chase. Winifred Shotter was classy, frightened femininity at its best.” In 1929 she made her film debut in Peace and Quiet (1929, Sinclair Hill), a short film made in Phonofilm. It was an excerpt of a Ronald Jeans revue, in which she played with Ralph Lynn. Several of the Aldwych plays were also made into films. The following year she played again opposite Lynn in the comedy Rookery Nook (1930, Tom Walls), produced by Herbert Wilcox. She also acted in the comedy On Approval (1930, Tom Walls), in which Walls was also her co-star.


British postcard in the Film Weekly Series, London.


British postcard. Photo: Twickenham. Publicity shot for Rocks of Valpre (1935, Henry Edwards).

Elegance and Charm
The farces filled the Aldwych throughout the 1930’s and the war years. In 1931 Winifred Shotter married Michael Green, a union that did not last. Shotter was kept very busy with a series of films during the early thirties. These films include Plunder (1931, Tom Walls), The Chance of a Night Time (1931, Ralph Lynn, Herbert Wilcox), and A Night Like This (1932, Tom Walls). In 1932 she played with Jack Hulbert and his wife Cicely Courtneidge in the successful comedy Jack's the Boy (1932, Walter Forde) for Gainsborough Pictures. She continued to make filmed Aldwych farces starring Ralph Lynn and appeared in Up to the Neck (1933, Jack Raymond), Just My Luck (1933, Jack Raymond) and Summer Lightning (1933. Maclean Rogers). She also appeared in more serious films such as the dramas Sorrell and Son (1933, Jack Raymond) with H.B. Warner and Hugh Wiliams, and the crime film The Rocks of Valpre (1935, Henry Edwards) starring John Garrick. She did make it to Hollywood, where she performed in one film, Petticoat Fever (1936, George Fitzmaurice) opposite Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery. Reportedly, she found life in Tinseltown distasteful and returned home. In 1946, Shotter became an announcer for BBC television, but she also occasionally returned to stage and screen. In 1951 she married actor Gilbert Davis, one of the band of English actors who found fame in Hollywood because of his impeccable manners and excellent speaking voice. She retired from the stage and for tax reasons the couple moved to Montreux, in Switzerland. Her final film was the family comedy John and Julie (1957, William Fairchild). After his death she returned to England and lived for some years in Surrey. Winifred Shotter would pass away in 1996 at Redhill in Surrey. She was 91. Molly Weir in The Independent: “I think Winifred Shotter must be one of the last actresses who never lost her elegance or her perfect manners, or her charm. She adorned every occasion she attended.”


Ralph Lynn. British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 174. Photo: Capitol Films.


Tom Walls. British postcard by Real Photograph, no. 175. Photo: Capitol Films.

Sources: Molly Weir (The Independent), Sandra Brennan (AllMovie), Wikipedia, and IMDb.