The Lyons Mail (also known as Coufrier de Lyon ) is a 1931 British historical mystery adventure film directed by Arthur Maude and starring John Martin-Harvey, Norah Baring, and Ben Webster. It was written by H. Fowler Mear based on the 1877 play The Lyons Mail by Charles Reade, which in turn was based on his 1854 play The Courier of Lyons.
The play had previously been made into a 1916 silent film The Lyons Mail.Filmed in 1930 at the Twickenham Studios in London, it was to be John Martin-Harvey's only sound film.
The story is based on the Courrier de Lyon case.
Contents
Cast
John Martin-Harvey as Joseph Lesurques
Norah Baring as Julie
Ben Webster as Jerome Lesurques
Moore Marriott as Choppard
George Thirlwell as Jean Didier
Michael Hogan as Courrioll
Sheila Wray as Madame Choppard
Eric Howard as Fouinard
Charles Paton as George Didier
Earl Grey as Daubenton
John Garside as Adjutant
Gabrielle Casartelli as maid
Reception
Film Weekly wrote: "This mellow favourite of touring companies and amateur theatrical productions loses none of its fruitiness in its guise of talkie. It belongs to a period of dramatic entertainment with which we have so lost sympathy that we find its melodramatic product amusing and its comedies dull. As it is played here – quite straight and without concessions to present-day tastes – The Lyons Mail is more amusing than it is moving, although the actual robbery is grippingly presented."
Picture Show wrote: "Hearty melodrama, well recorded."