Mrs. Gibbons' Boys (film)

black and white 1962 British comedy film directed by Max Varnel and starring Kathleen Harrison, Lionel Jeffries and Diana Dors.^[1] It is based on the play of the same name by Joseph Stein and Will Glickman, and was released in the UK as the bottom half of a double bill with Constantine and the Cross (1961).^[2]

Monthly Film Bulletin said "This unhappy farce about the doting mother of three revolting thugs is redeemed from utter banality by a few slick lines (mostly spoken by Diana Dors as Mrs. Gibbons' hairdresser cousin, a "straight bird" with a purely decorative function in the film), a few scenes (such as poor, sad Lionel Jeffries purchasing some chocolates for his intended) that are not sadistically slapstick, and a valiant supporting cast. How admirably shopkeeper Eric Pohlmann falls for ever amid the ruins of his merchandise! The pace is fast enough to hold real boredom at bay, but the production is wholly unimaginative and the settings, especially Mrs. Gibbons' stagey parlour replete with doors, both dreary and repetitive."^[4]