Queen of Hearts ** (1936, Gracie Fields, John Loder) – Classic Movie Review 13,620

The 1936 British musical comedy film Queen of Hearts is directed by Monty Banks and stars Gracie Fields, John Loder and Enid Stamp Taylor.

Director Monty Banks’s 1936 British musical comedy film Queen of Hearts stars Gracie Fields and John Loder, along with Enid Stamp Taylor, Fred Duprez, Edward Rigby and Hal Gordon.

Queen of Hearts is a suitably boisterous vehicle for Gracie Fields, built to simple, not to say preposterous specifications. She stars as Grace Perkins, a seamstress who masquerades as a society woman after being mistaken for a rich patron of the arts, backs a new show to become its leading lady, and ends up in the arms of a famous actor and becomes a star herself.

Italian-born director Monty Banks, aka Mario Bianchi, originally a silent comedy clown in Hollywood, gears the picture up towards speed, chases and slapstick. Gracie and he later married, but in the movie John Loder is her love interest, Derek Cooper.

Monty Banks has an uncredited role as Montague Banking.

Cast: Gracie Fields, John Loder, Enid Stamp Taylor, Fred Duprez, Edward Rigby, Julie Suedo, Hal Gordon, Jean Lester, Syd Crossley, Madeline Seymour, H F Malby, Margaret Yarde, Tom Gill, Edith Fields, Monty Banks, Vera Lennox, Pat Williams.

Queen of Hearts is directed by Monty Banks, runs 78 minutes, is made by Associated Talking Pictures, is released by Associated British, is written by Clifford Grey, H F Maltby, Douglas Furber, Anthony Kimmins and Gordon Wellesley, is shot in black and white by John W Boyle, is produced by Basil Dean, and is scored by Ernest Irving.

Release: 5 October 1936.

Queen of Hearts 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), Love, Life and Laughter (1934), Look Up and Laugh (1935) and The Show Goes On (1937).

Monty Banks met Gracie Fields in 1935 and directed her in four films, and they married in March 1940.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,620

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