One of the more extraordinary things about this Alec Guinless feature, whereby his ineffectual and gormless character (Ho! Ho!) plans a five year rise to be Mayor of his Lancashire hometown from being a poor rent collector, is the hassle involved in his securing a loan from the bank. Not that it’s any easier at the moment to extract cash from the claw-like grip of the ranks of usurers and shysters that constitute high street banks nowadays, but we’re fairly sure they don’t require an application to be countersigned by a member of the aristocracy anymore. There’s also the fact that none of Alec’s tenants, or rather the tenants of the landlord he collects for, hate his guts which, unless we’ve been lied to by every kitchen sink dramatist and Northern comedian that ever drew breath, they certainly should have done. For all that this is a lovely little film really.
