So… here is the news.  On Friday… December 16th… at 7 PM… we are running my favorite comedy… no question about it.  The name of this outstanding film is… Piccadilly Jim.   The same name as my email address ID.   And that is no accident.  In the film, from the P.G. Wodehouse novel of the same name, Robert Montgomery plays a character I found so wonderful I wanted to use the name on my email.

His character is that of a wastrel, though an industrious one.  One night, in a bar with a friend, he is loaded to the nines.  His friend spots a woman entering the room whom he declares as beautiful.  Montgomery, aware they have had afew too many tells him just that and to forget the girl.  But his friend insists so he turns to look and not only is she beautiful… she’s so spectacular that he quite literally falls for her right there and then.  And who is this creature akin to a goddess of beauty… why it’s Madge Evans who in real life could hold her own in any beauty competition.

Of course the plot doesn’t end there… it’s only beginning.  His father, played by Frank Morgan, who we just saw as a Supreme Court Justice, has fallen in love with one of Madge’s aunts played by the marvelously scatter-brained Billie Burke.  Neither romance seems possible because of the interference of another aunt played by Cora Witherspoon.

Robert Montgomery is so very good in this film that I almost agree with one of today’s critics who call this his greatest role.  Almost!  But Montgomery had many roles ranging from comedy to heavy drama to fantasy.   He was undoubtedly one of the most gifted actors with as wide rangiung a repertoire as is possible.  Here, one thing is certain… he understood comedy.

So take an evening to relax and laugh as we show Piccadilly Jim.  Friday… December 16th at Old City Hall at 7 PM.

Paul Becker