"Adapted from W. A. Darlington's famous farce", the credits proudly declare. But Darlington's original (first filmed as early as 1920 and here updated to 1937) is simply the springboard for a zany vehicle for The Crazy Gang.
Energetically directed by Marcel Varnel with agile photography by Arthur Crabtree (later put to work by Gainsborough on their wartime bodice-rippers) it abounds in surreal sights ranging from Alistair Sim as a genie to Bud Flanagan and Jimmy Nervo dragged up and dubbed as a pair of operatic divas; while the ingenues suffer a bizarre and wholly unexpected fate.
The aggressive craziness extends to the constant 'comical' sound effects; while the frequent use of the theme from 'Colonel Bogey' would have had entirely different connotations for wartime audiences when it was reissued five years later.
Energetically directed by Marcel Varnel with agile photography by Arthur Crabtree (later put to work by Gainsborough on their wartime bodice-rippers) it abounds in surreal sights ranging from Alistair Sim as a genie to Bud Flanagan and Jimmy Nervo dragged up and dubbed as a pair of operatic divas; while the ingenues suffer a bizarre and wholly unexpected fate.
The aggressive craziness extends to the constant 'comical' sound effects; while the frequent use of the theme from 'Colonel Bogey' would have had entirely different connotations for wartime audiences when it was reissued five years later.