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The Love Match
The Love Match
	British quad poster
Directed by	David Paltenghi
Written by	Geoffrey Orme (screenplay); Glenn Melvyn (additional dialogue)
Based on	play The Love Match by Glenn Melvyn
Produced by	Maclean Rogers
Starring	Arthur Askey
Cinematography	Arthur Grant
Edited by	Joseph Sterling
Music by	Wilfred Burns
Production; companies	Beaconsfield Productions; Group 3
Distributed by	British Lion Films
Release date	February 1955;
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£174,991 (UK)

The Love Match is a 1955 British black and white comedy film directed by David Paltenghi and starring Arthur Askey, Glenn Melvyn, Thora Hird and Shirley Eaton.^[2] A football-mad railway engine driver and his fireman are desperate to get back in time to see a match. It was based on the 1953 play of the same name by Glenn Melvyn, one of the stars of the film.^[3] A TV spin-off series, Love and Kisses, appeared later in 1955.^[4]

Cast

Arthur Askey as Bill Brown
Glenn Melvyn as Wally Binns
Thora Hird as Sal Brown
Shirley Eaton as Rose Brown
James Kenney as Percy Brown
Edward Chapman as Mr. Longworth
Danny Ross as Alf Hall
Robb Wilton as Mr. Muddlecombe
Anthea Askey as Vera
Patricia Hayes as Emma Binns
Iris Vandeleur as Mrs. Entwhistle
William Franklyn as Arthur Ford
Leonard Williams as aggressive man
Peter Swanwick as Mr. Hall
Dorothy Blythe as Waitress
Reginald Hearne as Police Constable Wilfred
Maurice Kaufmann as Harry Longworth
Janet Davies as motorist

Release

Box Office

According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit.^[5]^[6] According to Kinematograph Weekly it was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1955.^[7]

Critical reception

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Good, noisy north country comedy. Old jokes notch remarkably high scoring rate."^[8]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Although this is an admirable enough comedy, it is also one of those unforgivably patronising pictures that bourgeois British film makers believed presented an authentic picture of working-class life. Arthur Askey stars as a football crazy railway employee whose passion for a team of no-hopers lands him in all sorts of trouble. Struggling against a shortage of genuinely funny situations, the cast does well to keep the action alive. The highlight is Askey's heckling of the referee, a wonderful moment of football hooliganism."^[9]

TV Guide noted a "highly enjoyable farce."^[10]

Britmovie called it a "boisterous Lancashire comedy with a rapid succession of old jokes."^[11]

References

^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p504
^ "The Love Match (1955)". BFI. Archived from the original on 18 January 2009.
^ Goble, Alan (8 September 2011). The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. ISBN 9783110951943.
^ "Love And Kisses (Cast)". phill.co.uk.
^ U.S. MONEY BEHIND 30% OF BRITISH FILMS: Problems for the Board of Trade The Manchester Guardian 4 May 1956: 7
^ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of The 1950s The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press USA. p. 29.
^ "Other Money Makers of 1955". Kinematograph Weekly. 15 December 1955. p. 5.
^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 340. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.
^ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 565. ISBN 9780992936440.
^ "The Love Match". TVGuide.com.
^ "The Love Match". britmovie.co.uk.