Old Mother Riley in Paris

Synopsis

Old Mother Riley gets onto a boat bound for France with her daughter Kitty, instead of taking a bus,due to a mistake by the ticket collector.They do not realise they are on a boat,and even throw all their clothes out of the cabin's porthole,thinking they are in a launderette,and the window is the washing machine. Following several other hilarious mistakes,she gets involved with the theft of The Statue of Christ from Notre Dame Cathedral replacing it with a marzipan replica and also joins in a competition of chapel singing,when she is mistaken for a nun,and wins the competition, getting a contract with Columbia Records from a priest who has connections with the music industry.Several of the boat's staff make amorous advances to Kitty, including three simultaneous wedding proposals,each without the other's knowledge. The finale involves a custard pie fight in The Louvre.

Cast

Critical reception

TV Guide called it, "one of the most far fetched and yet most entertaining of the OLD MOTHER RILEY series...Daring deeds and Lucan's sharp characterization make for an irresistible romp." Britmovie called it, "probably (the) most amusing of the long-running Mother Riley series...This irresistible espionage romp in pre-war France has plenty of tired cooking and mother-in-law jokes but there are entertaining moments of energetic slapstick humour." DVD Times bemoaned that the film has "too much reliance on Kitty and no great set pieces (instead we get a series on individual gags which never build to anything)." Sky movies comments that it is "probably the funniest of all the Mother Riley comedies, this set up the long-running series, after a rather moderate opener, 'Old Mother Riley', had appeared the previous year...Made in the days when Lucan's real-life wife Kitty McShane still looked young enough to play his daughter."