My Wife's Lodger

Willie Higginbotham is a soldier who returns home after the Second World War only to find a spiv lodger has established himself in his place.{{cite web |author=Frank Collins |title=June 2010 |url=http://www.cathoderaytube.co.uk/2010_06_01_archive.html |access-date=2014-06-28 |publisher=Cathode Ray Tube}}{{cite web |title=My Wife's Lodger (1953) - Maurice Elvey - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/my-wifes-lodger-v103444 |website=AllMovie}}

• Dominic Roche as Willie Higginbotham
• Olive Sloane as Maggie Higginbotham
• Leslie Dwyer as Roger the Lodger
• Diana Dors as Eunice Higginbotham
• Alan Sedgwick as Tex
• Vincent Dowling as Norman Higginbotham
• Vi Kaley as mother-in-Law
• Martin Wyldeck as policeman
• David Hannaford as Vernon
• Ilena Sylva as Vernon's mother
• Ronald Adam as doctor
• Wally Patch as Sergeant
• Derek Tansley as deserter
• Alastair Hunter as Lance Corporal
• Toke Townley as soldier
• Fred Griffiths as driver
• Harry Locke as passer-by

Filming took place in May 1952.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}} It was one of a series of low budget comedies Dors made around this time.{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|title=A Tale of Two Blondes: Diana Dors and Belinda Lee|date=September 7, 2020|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/a-tale-of-two-blondes-diana-dors-and-belinda-lee/}}

The Monthly Film Bulletin said "this comedy runs through a repertoire of farcical situations of the most ancient variety. The playing does not lack energy but the music-hall style jokes – domestic bickering, mothers-in-law and so on – become very exhausting."MY WIFE'S LODGER

Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 19, Iss. 216, (Jan 1, 1952): 158.

Kine Weekly wrote: "Riotous "rough and ready" low life comedy, suggested by the stage success. ... There are no new jokes, but the shrewdly chosen cast makes the most of the evergreen. Wholesome, though occasionally vulgar, it's certain to tickle the crowd."{{Cite magazine |date=25 September 1952 |title=My Wife's Lodger |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2826312412 |url-access=subscription |magazine=Kine Weekly |pages=18 |via=ProQuest |volume=2361 |issue=426}}

The Daily Film Renter (quoted in BFI Screenonline) wrote, "the acting is of the 'Ee-bai-goom' school and the dialogue is the ripe, uninhibited language of the music hall... as briny as jellied eels on Southend Pier."

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Few things date quicker than humour and Maurice Elvey's northern farce certainly belongs to another era. ... The humour is broad, the musical interludes dismal, but the cast's enthusiasm is infectious."{{Cite book |title=Radio Times Guide to Films |publisher=Immediate Media Company |year=2017 |isbn=9780992936440 |edition=18th |location=London |pages=645}}

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Vulgar Northern farce with ancient jokes; enthusiastically played."{{Cite book |last=Quinlan |first=David |title=British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 |publisher=B.T. Batsford Ltd. |year=1984 |isbn=0-7134-1874-5 |location=London |pages=350}}

TV Guide wrote: "the energy of the ensemble partly makes up for the film's lack of coherence and taste."{{cite web |title=My Wife's Lodger - TV Guide |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/my-wifes-lodger/107105 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306163824/https://www.tvguide.com/movies/my-wifes-lodger/107105/ |archive-date=6 March 2016 |website=TVGuide.com}}

• {{IMDb title|0044943}}
• [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1405779/index.html My Wife's Lodger at BFI Screenonline]
• [https://letterboxd.com/film/my-wifes-lodger/ My Wife's Lodger] at Letterbox DVD
• [https://www.reelstreets.com/films/my-wifes-lodger/ My Wife's Lodger] at Reel Streets
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20171204202520/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b12b379 My Wife's Lodger] at BFI

{{Maurice Elvey}}

Category:1952 films

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:Films directed by Maurice Elvey

Category:1952 comedy films

Category:British comedy films

Category:British black-and-white films

Category:1950s British films

Category:English-language comedy films