Jack of All Trades (1936 film)

Jack of All Trades is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and Jack Hulbert and starring Hulbert, Gina Malo and Robertson Hare. It is based on the 1934 play Youth at the Helm. The film was made at Islington Studios, with sets designed by Alex Vetchinsky.

Plot

Jack, out of work and responsible for an aged mother, takes a succession of jobs, bluffing his way through them all.

Cast

• Jack Hulbert as Jack Warrender
• Gina Malo as Frances Wilson
• Robertson Hare as Lionel Fitch
• Mary Jerrold as Mrs. Warrender
• Cecil Parker as Sir. Chas Darrington
• Athole Stewart as Bank Chairman
• Felix Aylmer as Managing Director
• Ian McLean as The Fire Raiser
• H. F. Maltby as Bank Director
• Fewlass Llewellyn as Bank Director
• Marcus Barron as Williams
• C. M. Hallard as Henry Kilner
• Peggy Simpson as Typist
• Betty Astell as Dancer
• Arnold Bell
• Harry Crocker
• Henry B. Longhurst as Party Guest
• Frederick Piper as Jimmy, Employment Clerk
• Victor Rietti as Head Waiter
• Bruce Seton as Dancer
• Cyril Smith
• Netta Westcott

Critical reception

Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a mildly negative review. After giving high praise to the board meeting scene in the first half of the film, and describing it as an "excellent sequence" of "pointed fooling", Greene comments that the remainder of the film "degenerates into nothing but [...] an awful eternal disembodied Cheeriness".

References

Bibliography

• Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
• Wood, Linda. British Films, 1927-1939. British Film Institute, 1986.

External links