The Love Match

The Love Match is a 1955 British black and white comedy film directed by David Paltenghi and starring Arthur Askey, Glenn Melvyn, Thora Hird and Shirley Eaton. A football-mad railway engine driver and his fireman are desperate to get back in time to see a match. It was based on the 1953 play of the same name by Glenn Melvyn, one of the stars of the film. A TV spin-off series, Love and Kisses, appeared later in 1955.

Cast

 * Arthur Askey as Bill Brown
 * Glenn Melvyn as Wally Binns
 * Thora Hird as Sal Brown
 * Shirley Eaton as Rose Brown
 * James Kenney as Percy Brown
 * Edward Chapman as Mr. Longworth
 * Danny Ross as Alf Hall
 * Robb Wilton as Mr. Muddlecombe
 * Anthea Askey as Vera
 * Patricia Hayes as Emma Binns
 * Iris Vandeleur as Mrs. Entwhistle
 * William Franklyn as Arthur Ford
 * Leonard Williams as aggressive man
 * Peter Swanwick as Mr. Hall
 * Dorothy Blythe as Waitress
 * Reginald Hearne as Police Constable Wilfred
 * Maurice Kaufmann as Harry Longworth
 * Janet Davies as motorist

Box Office
According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit. According to Kinematograph Weekly it was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1955.

Critical reception
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Good, noisy north country comedy. Old jokes notch remarkably high scoring rate."

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "Although this is an admirable enough comedy, it is also one of those unforgivably patronising pictures that bourgeois British film makers believed presented an authentic picture of working-class life. Arthur Askey stars as a football crazy railway employee whose passion for a team of no-hopers lands him in all sorts of trouble. Struggling against a shortage of genuinely funny situations, the cast does well to keep the action alive. The highlight is Askey's heckling of the referee, a wonderful moment of football hooliganism."

TV Guide noted a "highly enjoyable farce."

Britmovie called it a "boisterous Lancashire comedy with a rapid succession of old jokes."