Wolf's Clothing is a 1936 British comedy film directed by Andrew Marton and starring Claude Hulbert, Gordon Harker and Lilli Palmer. It was written by Evadne Price and Brock Williams, and made at Shepperton Studios by the independent producer Richard Wainwright.
The screenplay concerns a blundering group of secret agents who mistake a Foreign Office official for an international assassin.
Contents
Preservation status
The British Film Institute National Archive holds a collection of stills but no film or video materials.
Plot
The British Secret Service sends nitwit Ambrose Girling to break up a gang of international assassins, headquartered in Paris. There, he meets Lydia, and through her infiltrates the gang. Thinking him an assassin, the incompetent gangsters order him to kill a British politician, but then discover his true identity. Ambrose escapes, helps to round up the gang, and marries Lydia.
Cast
Claude Hulbert as Ambrose Girling
Gordon Harker as Prosser
Lilli Palmer as Lydia
George Graves as Sir Roger Balmayne
Peter Gawthorne as Sir Hector
Helen Haye as Mildred Girling
Joan Swinstead as Mary Laming
Frank Birch as Reverend John Laming
Ernest Sefton as Finden Charvet
George Hayes as Yassiov
Shayle Gardner as Babo
Violet Gould as kiosk proprietress
Madame von Major as Babo's mother
Reception
Kine Weekly wrote: "Rousing adventure comedy burlesque, backed up by a good story, an excellent comedy team resourceful direction, an eager supporting cast, hearty punch, and an unfailing capacity for turning out really bright gags. The picture travels at whirlwind pace from start to finish, yet never deserts popular romance in its successful pursuit of laughter and thrills. Claude Hulbert and Gordon Harker the one vacuous and the other ribald, form a grand new comedy partnership, and Lilli Palmer puts sex appeal into the love interest, while George Graves, his usual peppery self heads an excellent supporting cast."
The Daily Film Renter wrote: "Staged mainly in Paris, with quota of serio-comic fistics, and climax depicting hero's hair-raising adventures in sewer labyrinth, subject affords co-stars ample scope for familiar styles of work, and should prove good, hearty entertainment for the masses. Claude Hulbert and Gordon Harker team together here with excellent effect, their widely divergent styles of comedy resulting in an entertaining partnership that could well be continued in future subjects."