Charley’s Aunt (1941)
Charley’s Aunt (1941)
„Charley’s Aunt“ is a 1941 historical slapstick romantic comedy film directed by Archie Mayo.
In 1890, Lord Fancourt Babberly, known to his friends as Babbs, has been studying at Oxford for ten years to obtain a three-year degree before joining his uncle Hilary’s law firm.
During a cricket match, Babbs is annoyed by schoolmate Harley Stafford and their subsequent chase ends with Babbs unconscious, holding onto the rope of the fire bell. About to be expelled for his inadvertent prank, Babbs tells the Mr. Redcliff, that his friends, Jack Chesney and Charley Wyckham, were witnesses to the event and can prove his innocence.
Babbs returns to his room, and finds Jack and Charley are upset, for Stephen Spettigue, the guardian of their respective girl friends, Amy Spettigue and Kitty Verdun, intends to take the girls away.
Jack and Charley have invited the girls to tea, during which they will propose. The intended chaperone is Charley’s Brazilian aunt, Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez, whom he has never met. Donna Lucia visits her heir Charley incognito, as Spettigue is a well-known fortune hunter. Hilary sends Babbs a telegram ordering him to entertain Mrs. Beverly Smythe, the name Donna Lucia plans to use.
Babbs appears in the dress he is to wear for the school variety show, Charley and Jack blackmail him into impersonating donna Lucia in exchange for their testimony to Redcliff. Babbs assumes the role of the aunt from Brazil, and must fend off the attentions of Spettigue and Jack’s father, Sir Francis Chesney, who are both after Lucia’s fortune.
The real Lucia arrives at Oxford, and Babbs spends a wearying afternoon going back and forth entertaining her as himself and impersonating her to keep Spettigue and Chesney away from the romancing young couples.
Jack and Charley convince Babbs to continue the charade at dinner, during which Lucia secretly deduces his real identity. After dinner, Babbs and Lucia pursue their own romance in the garden, and when Chesney sees them, he deduces the nature of the ruse and laughingly congratulates Spettigue on his incipient engagement. After Babbs wheedles the consent from Spettigue, his identity is revealed. Spettigue declares that the consent is invalid, as it is addressed to Donna Lucia d’Alvadorez, but Lucia then reveals her own identity. As Babbs wonders if Spettigue can sue him for breach of promise, he receives a kiss from Lucia, and Jack and Charley embrace Kitty and Amy.
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