John Bentley back in action as Richard Rollison alias ‘The Toff’ and this time the lovely actress Carol Marsh with him – I really liked Carol Marsh – her lovely face and looks really appeal to me and I find her so magnetic – every scene she is in, her looks just draw you to her.

She had a meteoric start to he film career when she had the female lead in ‘Brighton Rock’ opposite Richard Attenborough and then went on to play Alice in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and then after ‘A Christmas Carol’ things seemed to stall. ‘Salute the Toff was made in 1951.

She was busy though in this period – she appeared in a BBC Drama adaptation of ‘Time and the Conways’ in 1950 – that would have gone out ‘live’ in those days and she also played Alice – this time on stage – in ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ at the Princes Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue and that was in 1954. I have seen a picture of her in this production with Margaret Rutherford and that was from the Wimbledon Theatre – so maybe it was transferred there

Much later she played again in the West End in the very famous Agatha Christie play – ‘The Mousetrap’

It does appear that the production of ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ toured quite extensively – Above at Her Majesty’s Theatre Brighton. The cast is impressive – Margaret Rutherford and her husband in real life Stringer Davies, Michael Denison and Griffith Jones among many others

Back to ‘Salute the Toff’ – it was a film made in the late summer of 1951 and Nettlefold Studios and was the second of the The Toff films made there – one after the other apparently. The fist to be made and released was ‘Hammer the Toff’ released in January 1952 with this one out in May of that year.

I enjoyed ‘Salute the Toff’ as it kept the plot moving well and was sprinkled with outdoor scenes and action too at times. John Bentley played The Toff each time

I do have the Radio Dramas of The Toff which starred Terence Alexander and he is very good in the role. There are quite a number of these plays – I have listened to them all and can recommend them

Roddy Hughes who played ‘Jolley’ the Toff’s faithful manservant, had perhaps the most interesting and accomplished career of any of these actors.

He was born in Portmadoc North Wales and began his sacting career on stage after the First World War. He didn’t enter the film world until 1932 but after that was very busy in many productions.

His stage work saw him as a regular performer in the West End and on Broadway