The Gang’s All Here *** (1939, Jack Buchanan, Googie Withers, Edward Everett Horton, Syd Walker, Otto Kruger, Jack La Rue, Walter Rilla) – Classic Movie Review 12,686

Jack Buchanan, Googie Withers and Edward Everett Horton star in the amusing, energetic 1939 British black-and-white slapstick comedy-mystery film The Gang’s All Here.

Director Thornton Freeland’s entertaining, energetic 1939 British black-and-white slapstick comedy-mystery film The Gang’s All Here has an ironic title, as the gang’s isn’t all here.

In this bright, exciting and amusing comedy thriller follow-up to 1937’s Smash and Grab, Jack Buchanan returns as the amazing Mr John Forrest – but not Elsie Randolph who is replaced by Googie Withers as his wife, Alice.

Buchanan plays a retired insurance company sleuth on the trail of Prince Homouska (Walter Rilla)’s missing crown jewels. His former employers at the Stamford Insurance Company are robbed of the $1,000,000 worth of jewels, so the couple soon find themselves incognito among mob boss Alberni (Jack La Rue)’s gang of American mobsters controlling a nightspot in an attempt to capture the crooks.

Buchanan and Withers are delightful, giving show-stopping turns, and the treasurable Edward Everett Horton is a very obvious asset as the dizzy butler Treadwell, who aids and abets the Forrests.

It is made at Elstree studios, so a clip of it appeared in 1952’s The Elstree Story.

It has no relation to the Carmen Miranda / Busby Berkeley 1943 film of the same title, The Gang’s All Here, except that, oddly enough, Edward Everett Horton is in both films, playing Peyton Potter in the 1943 version.

It is made and released by Associated British Picture Corporation.

It was belatedly released by PRC in the US in 1943 retitled The Amazing Mr Forrest to avoid confusion.

The cast are Jack Buchanan as John Forrest, Googie Withers as Alice Forrest, Edward Everett Horton as Treadwell, Syd Walker as Younce, Otto Kruger as Mike Chadwick, Jack La Rue as Alberni, Walter Rilla as Prince Homouska, David Burns as Beretti, Charles Carson as Charles Cartwright, Leslie Perrins as Harper, and Ronald Shiner as Spider Ferris.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,686

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