Love, Life and Laughter *** (1934, Gracie Fields, John Loder, Norah Howard, Allan Aynesworth, Esmé Percy, Robb Wilton) – Classic Movie Review 13,617  

The 1934 British comedy film Love, Life and Laughter stars Gracie Fields as daughter of an English pub owner and John Loder as a visiting foreign prince.

Director Maurice Elvey’s 1934 British comedy film Love, Life and Laughter is written by Maurice Braddell, Gordon Wellesley and Robert Edmunds, and stars Gracie Fields, John Loder, Norah Howard, Allan Aynesworth, Esmé Percy, Robb Wilton and Ivor Barnard. Gracie Fields stars as Nellie Gwynn, the grown-up daughter of an English pub owner called Mr Gwynn (Horace Kenney) and his wife Mrs Gwynn (Veronica Brady). Enter a visiting foreign prince (John Loder).

John Loder plays the visiting foreign prince, Prince Charles of Granau, who prefers barmaid-turned-film-star Nellie Gwynn (Gracie Fields) to his dowdy princess fiancée Princess Grapfel (Norah Howard), and cuts off his engagement to Howard to follow Fields to the movie studios. Gracie gets him a part in her film, but when his father dies, the prince must go home as king. Even though she loves him, Gracie gives him up for the good of the people and dresses up the fiancée to look attractive so he can marry and perhaps even love her.

You don’t have to believe in a single word of this escapist comedy to find it amusing – thanks mostly to the film’s joie de vivre, Gracie’s vivacious performance and Robb Wilton’s jolly comic turn as the magistrate. [Spoiler alert] It’s typical that Gracie the joker doesn’t get the prince!

George Sanders appears uncredited in his film debut as Singer In Public Bar.

Producer Basil Dean recalled he asked Maurice Braddell to write the dialogue at short notice, and ‘he sat up ‘night and day in order to complete his task in a fortnight’. Later script amendments by ‘two gentlemen from Hollywood’ were shown to Gracie Fields, who said ‘It’s mucky’ and they were ditched.

Love, Life and Laughter is released on the four-disc, seven-film Gracie Fields collector’s edition DVD with Sally in Our Alley (1931), Looking on the Bright Side (1931), Sing As We Go (1934), Look Up and Laugh (1935), Queen of Hearts (1936) and The Show Goes On (1937).

Cast: Gracie Fields, John Loder, Norah Howard, Allan Aynesworth, Esmé Percy, Robb Wilton, Ivor Barnard, Veronica Brady, Horace Kenney, Fred Duprez, A Bromley Davenport, Eric Maturin, Elizabeth Jenns, Esmé Church, Raymond Lovell, Jack Raine, Ian Wilson, Ben Field, George Sanders.

Love, Life and Laughter is directed by Maurice Elvey, runs 83 minutes, is made by Associated Talking Pictures, is released by Associated British Film Distributors, is written by Maurice Braddell (screenplay), Gordon Wellesley (screenplay) and Robert Edmunds (uncredited) from a story by Eric Dunstan and J Sterndale Bennett, is shot in black and white by Robert G Martin, is produced by Basil Dean, is scored by Ernest Irving (musical director, uncredited) and Jimmy Harper.

Release: March 1934.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,617

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