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
Production The film was an early appearance from Shirley Eaton.
Release Box Office According to the National Film Finance Corporation, the film made a comfortable profit.U.S. MONEY BEHIND 30% OF BRITISH FILMS: Problems for the Board of Trade The Manchester Guardian 4 May 1956: 7 According to Kinematograph Weekly it was a "money maker" at the British box office in 1955.
The reported profit was £34,000.*
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."
See also List of association football films
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