Take a Powder

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "There is a germ of fun in this artless little film, but its crazy comedy develops at too slow a pace. Max Bacon, as the quack medicine man, over-works his effects and rarely raises a laugh; the rest of the playing is adequate."^[3]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture is little more than an inflated music-hall sketch and there is more than enough of Max Bacon, who overworks solecisms, as Maxie, but Maudie Edwards, amusing as the matron, Fred Kitchen, jun., an effective foil as an inhibited medico, and Isabel George and Neville Gates, adequate as Betty and Bill, make the most of the by-play. Patchy, yet disarmingly iingenuous, it has its moments."^[4]

Picturegoer wrote: "You should take that title literally. Featuring Max Bacon, this film attempts to parody conventional atomic spy melodrama, but soon gets trapped in a county hospital and endlessly walks the white corridors in a vain search for laughs and thrills. Max Bacon, cast as a travelling medicine man mistaken for a well-known scientist, bores with the laboured wisecracks the script has given him. Old-timers Maudie Edwards and Fred Kitchen improvise effectively, but fail to achieve the impossible and carry both the star and the script."^[5]

Picture Show wrote: "Comedy and melodrama are somewhat mixed in this story of a marketplace "atomic powder" seller who is mistaken for an eminent research worker ... Max Bacon does his best to carry the film along with his lively personality and extraordinary English."^[6]

TV Gude wrote; "Stupefyingly unfunny from beginning to end."^[7]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "poor", writing: "Artless comedy lurches slowly along in vain search for laughs or thrills."^[8]

• Take a Powder at IMDb