A Fire Has Been Arranged – 1935 | 70 mins | Comedy | B&W

Plot Synopsis

One of Britain’s best-loved variety double acts Bud Flanagan and Chesney Allen star in this weak pre-war crime caper. It’s that old chestnut about crooks leaving the clink to find the location of their stash of loot has been built on. 30 years later Gerald Thomas would use the same plot device 30 years later for The Big Job (1965), substituting the department store with a police station.

Ches and Bud raid a jewellery shop and manage to evade the law just long enough to bury their ill-gotten gains in a country field. After ten years in prison, they are released and race to recover their jewels. However, while they’ve been inside the area is developed, and Messrs. Shuffle & Cutte have built a department store on top of their gems. It seems like they’re lost forever – until fate lends a hand. They are caught acting suspiciously and taken before the manager Cutte (Alastair Sim) who reveals that the store is facing imminent bankruptcy. There may be one drastic solution that will solve all their problems – arson.