It's in the Bag (1944)

It's in the, erm, dress! Directed by Herbert Mason and written by Con West, It's in the Bag stars Elsie Waters and Doris Waters as two batty sisters who try to track down a dress that has a substantial amount of money sewn into the hem. It's all very chaotic and sprightly, resplendent with chucklesome slapstick as par for the course. The sisters showcase their music hall background to great effect, backed up by a number of idiosyncratic and ebullient characters. It's all very daft of course, none more so than with the blunderbuss finale played out at a theatre, and in truth the jokes wear thin after a while. But some comedy sequences do bring the laughs (sleepwalking on tacks, wonderful), ensuring this is not a waste of time for fans of this type of British film making. 5/10

It's a bit too long, this, but it's still quite an entertaining to-and-fro drama that showcases the enjoyable comedy timing of "Gert" & "Daisy" (Elsie & Doris Waters). They are skint! They need some cash - and so they take an old frock that belonged to their late aunt and sell it for a few pounds. Later, when celebrating their windfall they discover a letter from that relative informing them there is the mammoth sum of £2,000 sewn into that frilly garment. They must get it back at all costs, but how? It's been sold on - and their search to find it leads them to tread the boards and this isn't a skill that either can take to readily. These two, real-life, sisters have a delightful rapport - they finish each other's sentences and there is a charming synergy between them that delivers their own script effectively. It's a little slapstick for me and the jokes are hardly sophisticated, but it has a natural feel to it and even after the initial joke has worn thin, it flows pretty seamlessly. It probably won't mean much if you are not a Brit, but of you are then it's an engaging piece of cinema nostalgia designed to raise a smile during the height of the Second World War.