Oh, Mr. Porter!

1937 Comedy 85 minutes Directed by Marcel Varnel

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About Oh, Mr. Porter!

William Porter, a failed wheeltapper, is made stationmaster at a dead station near the Irish Free State border. Jeremiah Harbottle and Albert Brown, who steal goods and trade tickets for food, tell him the last masters were taken by the ghost of One-Eyed Joe. Porter sells tickets for what he thinks is a football special. The load is guns. The train is switched onto a dead branch. Sacked, he, Harbottle, and Albert find it in a tunnel under a windmill, get away down the sails, and couple the gunners' carriages to the engine Gladstone. A note in Harbottle's medicine bottle brings the police. Gladstone, said to be ninety, blows up at the celebration. Will Hay plays Porter. Moore Marriott plays Harbottle. Graham Moffatt plays Albert.

Cast & crew

More about Oh, Mr. Porter!

Marcel Varnel directed. Edward Black produced. J. O. C. Orton, Marriott Edgar, and Val Guest wrote it from a story by Frank Launder and Arnold Ridley, loosely from Ridley's play The Ghost Train. Arthur Crabtree photographed. Louis Levy and Jack Beaver wrote music. R. E. Dearing edited. The title comes from the music-hall song "Oh! Mr Porter." First public showing in November 1937. General release January 3, 1938. The listed length is 85 minutes. The box-office figure on record is £500,000. Dennis Wyndham plays Joe. A copy is on the Internet Archive as Oh_Mr.Porter_1937.

Themes

  • A stationmaster posted to a dead station
  • A ghost story that covers gunrunners
  • An engine that blows up at the party
  • William Porter
  • Harbottle
  • Albert
  • Gladstone
  • gunrunners
  • Will Hay

Look

Arthur Crabtree shot the station, the windmill, and the chase on Gladstone.

Music

Louis Levy and Jack Beaver wrote the music. The title is the music-hall song "Oh! Mr Porter."

Preservation

A print survives.

Notes

  • The goalposts Joe describes are the guns.
  • Gladstone is the engine. It explodes after Porter says it has another ninety years.
  • The £500,000 is the period gross cited for the film. No later conversion is used here.
  • Stanley Holloway is on some cast lists. Wyndham is the one-eyed man.

Scenes

  • They slide down the windmill sails and steal Gladstone.
  • The engine explodes after Porter boasts it has ninety years left.

Influenced by

  • Arnold Ridley's play The Ghost Train
  • The music-hall song "Oh! Mr Porter

Also available

  • Internet Archive (Oh_Mr.Porter_1937)