Wed 24 Mar 2010
A Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: MAD ABOUT MEN (1954).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[14] Comments
MAD ABOUT MEN. General Films, 1954. Glynnis Johns, Donald Sinden, Anne Crawford, Margaret Rutherford, Dora Bryan, Noah Purcell. Director: Ralph Thomas.
“Certainly not all at the same time.”
That’s Miranda for you, all over. Miranda is Glynnis Johns, and just happens to be a mermaid, and the title of the film is a perfect description of her attitude in this fish-out-of-water comedic fantasy sequel to her debut as the mermaid in Miranda (1948).
In this one Johns has a dual role as Miranda and Caroline her land-bound cousin (seems grandfather had a way with the ladies and the mermaids) who inherits a house in Cornwall and discovers Miranda.
Miranda would rather like a holiday on solid land, and since Caroline is off for a two week holiday hiking tour, she arranges for Miranda to take her place pretending to have had a bad fall on the parallel bars (“I was going between two bars and took a fall.”) so she can explain the wheelchair with nurse Margaret Rutherford (who cared for her in the first film) helping.
Miranda meanwhile doesn’t much care for the look of Caroline’s fiance, and she sets out to woo and win her another — no real effort for Miranda who finds men just lovely.
Of course this is all pure froth, but done in lovely color and with a sprightly sense of humor and double — even triple — entendre. One of her beaus is a retired soldier Berkley and the other a handsome and rich fisherman Jeff (Sinden), and Miranda’s less than innocent ways soon have both men in over their heads.
Complicating things for Miranda is her life long companion, Berengaria (Dora Bryan) whose mother was “frightened by an octopus,” and has a penchant for kleptomania and off-key singing.
Rutherford is delightful as the nurse (watch for the scene where she sings “Maria the Matador’s Mother”) who takes great pride in her sexy patient, and Johns is a revelation: long platinum hair, Khirghiz eyes, and that breathless voice, perfect for this sexy romp.
Those who only know her as Mother in Mary Poppins may be in for something of a shock.
When Berkley’s fiance Barbara finds out Miranda’s secret, she sets a trap to reveal her before the world.
The only depths to this one are in the ocean, but that hardly matters. This is a visual delight and a showcase for Johns who gets to perform not only a sexy song but a pretty hot rumba, and do much of the film dressed in little more than her long hair and pasties. If you can, catch it with the first film, Miranda, which is even more of a delight, and teams Johns with David Tomlinson, who would play her husband in Mary Poppins.
Both films are funny, sexy, and fine examples of the kind of thing Thorne Smith used to do it print in a more (and less) innocent age. Both films compare well with the William Powell comedy Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid, where he catches mermaid Ann Blyth on a fishing trip in Florida, much to the bemusement of wife Irene Hervey.
March 24th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
I saw these films a few years ago and was impressed with Glynis Johns. Sexy, funny comedies with a fantasy element. I just looked on ebay and managed to order both films in a box set from Australia.
March 25th, 2010 at 12:23 am
I suppose as a reaction to the suffering of the war years and the shortages of the post war period British cinema produced some of the most charming comedies ever made in the period from the end of the war to the middle sixties.
Films like these, THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT, WHISKEY GALORE, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB, HUE AND CRY, GENEVIEVE, AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY, VICE VERSA (remade at least three times as an American film), the Doctor series, and the Carry On films were graced by a plethora of great British comic actors including not only Alec Guiness and Peter Sellars, but Dennis Price, Terry Thomas, Stanley Holloway, Kenneth More, Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Rutherford, Leo McKern, Alistair Sim, Glynis Johns, Kay Kendall, Joan Greenwood, and a small army of less familiar names but unforgettable faces.
Richard Burton even got in on the act in GREEN GROW THE RUSHES.
Of course the classic Ealing comedies are the best known, but there are others that deserve to be in the pantheon to varying degrees, from THE RUNAWAY BUS (remake of the classic GHOST TRAIN) with one of Margaret Rutherford’s great film performances to THE GREEN MAN where the droll Alistair Sim plays a timid clockmaker with a side line as an assassin.
March 25th, 2010 at 5:18 am
I have all the Ealing comedies you mention in the British box sets except ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY. I’ll have to look that up. My favorite of all of them is WHISKEY GALORE, which is based on a true event of a ship sinking with a cargo of whiskey. I guess to really enjoy the movie you have to appreciate the benefits of a glass of scotch, fine wine or a cold beer. But I love all the Ealing comedies.
I saw many of the Carry On and Doctor films as a teenager. A local theater showed foreign films and the British comedies would stay for months because they were so popular. At the time we thought they were risque and sexy but when I look at them now, I fail to see the attraction. They are funny in a sort of dated, lame way.
March 25th, 2010 at 6:01 am
Walker
Re WHISKEY GALORE (TIGHT LITTLE ISLAND) I watched it a few weeks ago, with a glass of Laphrohaig nearby in case the viewing should give me a thirst — which it always does. The sequel, MAD LITTLE ISLAND (aka ROCKET’s GALORE) isn’t as good, but still worth catching.
I agree, the Carry On films depend on your mood to some degree and your tolerance, but at the least CARRY ON CLEO features one of highlights (or lowlights) of British humor as the Roman troops march into Alexandria to “Sinister, Sinister, Sinister, Dexter, Sinister.” Of course few of them come up to that standard.
The Doctor series based on Richard Gordon’s books and the basis for a long running TV series hold up pretty well, at least DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE and DOCTOR AT SEA.
I’m not sure if AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY is an Ealing film or not, but do it look it up. Donald Sinden, Diana Dors, Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford, and directed by J. Lee Thompson (CAPE FEAR, THE GUNS OF NAVARONE). Not in a class with some of the others, but good fun and Dors shows real comic talent.
And no mention of British comedy of the era should slight THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (MOUSE ON THE MOON is slighter, but still entertaining) or THE BELLES OF ST. TRINIANS and its sequels based respectively on Leonard Wibberly’s novels about the mad Duchy of Grand Fenwick and Ronald Searle’s wicked cartoons about a public girl’s school from hell.
A couple of others worth hunting for are PENNY PRINCESS about a shop girl who finds herself queen of a small bankrupt state and MISTER DRAKE’S DUCK with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Yolande Donlan a young couple who run afoul of endless red tape when one of their ducks lays a uranium egg. WEE GEORDIE based on David Walker’s novel is also good and if you’ll go back a bit Michael Powell’s wonderful I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING with the magnificent Scottish scenery and haunting music is a great romantic comedy.
And what many consider the best Brit comedy ever made — and it is an Ealing film, PASSPORT TO PIMLICO, has to get a mention.
But there are a good many smaller films to from I’m ALRIGHT JACK and THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES to WRONG ARM OF THE LAW and HEAVEN’S ABOVE that are small classics. And while not strictly a comedy THE DETECTIVE with Alec Guiness as Father Brown and Peter Finch as Flambeau is well worth catching.
March 25th, 2010 at 7:10 am
Just looked up AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY and it is not a Ealing comedy. However it’s avaiable at Amazon UK, heavily discounted in a box set of Donald Sinden movies. I just ordered it since it’s so cheap from a third party seller.
The Ealing Studio comedies are excellent and are discussed at length in a book about the studio and a documentary included in the box sets. Thanks to dvds and the internet, we now can enjoy these films in our homes and not just wonder what they are all about.
March 25th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
There haven’t been a lot of movies on TCM this year that they haven’t shown before. (If I’m wrong about this, then I missed them, and I’m not sure I want you to tell me.)
But they showed a lot of British comedies last year, not all of the ones David and Walker have been talking about, and probably not most of them, but AN ALLIGATOR NAMED DAISY was one that they did show. I think I taped it, but I have a feeling that either the title or the story line convinced me to save space on the tape for something else.
Perhaps I did a silly thing.
In any case, Walker, you’re absolutely right. There’s no reason why anybody shouldn’t have an all-regions DVD player and start obtaining movies that are easily available in the UK and other parts of the world, but not in the US, or non-commercial (collector to collector) movies, of which thousands exist.
TCM is fine, as far as they go, but what they offer is about one or two percent of what you can find if you go looking. It boggles the mind, it really does.
Before DVD’s came along, I hardly bothered reading books about movie stars or directors, or books about film noir, westerns or the like. It was just too frustrating to read about them and have no means of actually watching them.
— Steve
March 25th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
A word here for the unfairly forgotten PLEASE TURN OVER, a 1958 Gerald Thomas comedy. Julia Lockwood is a slightly scatty suburban teenager, who has secretly been writing THE NAKED REVOLT, a bestselling steamy expose whose characters look as though they might be based on her friends and family.
It’s very cleverly done, with the viewer being given the opportunity to see the reality and the fiction, due to a ‘film-within-a-film’ half way through. Leslie Philips is especially good as the local GP, with his fictional persona being a caricature of the stanard ‘Leslie Philips’ character (the ‘real-life’ version being easy going and shy). There is also a lovely take-off of the then current trend of the ‘Angry Young Man’ movement in the London Theatre.
I’m going to stick up for the unfairly maligned CARRY ON series. Whilst some of the late entries are hard to love, the majority of the titles are charming, well made and funny. Just consider the immortal lines from CARRY ON CLEO, as Julius Caesar flees his would be killer:-
“Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”
or CARRY ON SCREAMING
Sgt Bung: A young lady has vanished
and we’re anxious to trace
her whereabouts.
Dr Watt: Oh, whereabouts?
Sgt Bung: Hereabouts.
Albert: At ten o’clock.
Sgt Bung: Or thereabouts.
Slowbotham: In this vicinity.
Sgt Bung: Or roundabouts.
Slowbotham: We’re police officers.
Albert: Or layabouts!
March 25th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Bradstreet
When the mood is right the CARRY ON films can be great fun, and I agree they often get unfairly compared to more sophisticated films they were never intended to compete with. There is always something to be said for really silly funny comedy.
And many of the scores for the CARRY ON films were composed by Robert Montgomery (not the actor) who readers of this blog likely know better as Edmund Crispin, the creator of Oxford don sleuth Gervase Fen, and author of THE MOVING TOYSHOP, one of the masterpieces of the genre.
March 25th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Steve
Over the last ten years I have seen more films that I had given up hope of ever seeing thanks both to TCM and the DVD revolution. Oddly enough relatively few of them have been disappointments.
It still amazes me that I can type a few words into a search engine and find books and films that I have hunted for decades, sometimes at remarkably cheap prices, and fairly often on older material read it for free on-line or download it —everything from golden age comics I couldn’t afford to old radio programs to books I would have had to pour through hundreds of catalogs to find — if then.
Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming, but then overwhelmed in this case is better than being underwhelmed.
March 26th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
One of the delights of the DVD revolution has been the opportunity to see ‘archive’ TV. It’s lovely to wallow in nostalgia, with childhood favourites such as CRIBB or RAFFLES now only a disc away. However, there’s also the chance to see television from before I was born. The Richard Greene ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD series turned out to be charming. The cast are great, and the ‘all-expenses-spared’ style leads to some unintentional hilarity (in some episodes the supporting cast will play more than one speaking role, cunningly disguising themselves by affecting a different accent, or sticking on a phoney moustache.)
March 26th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Bradstreet
I’ve seen that CRIBB has come out on DVD in the UK, but not here in the US yet. I’ve put it aside temporarily to see if the price comes down, perhaps.
As for ROBIN HOOD, I remember the one with Richard Greene from the 1950s when I was a kid. I have good memories of it, but I was wondering what I might think of it now. Maybe the same as you, from the sounds of it.
But while I haven’t followed through yet, I’m tempted to stock up on the recent RH adaptions. Which are the good ones? I know I’m confused, but there have been two separate series of RH programs in the UK, if not more, have there not?
March 26th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
One of the actors playing multiple roles on the Greene ROBIN HOOD series is none other than Rumpole himself, Leo McKern — not so easy to disguise that body with an accent and a wig.
The stories are good though, and the good news is you can pick up pretty much the whole first season for $5. Greene got significantly rich doing these so I always wondered why he bothered doing those Jesus Franco/Harry Alan Towers epics as Sir Denis Nayland Smith in BLOOD OF FU MANCHU and CASTLE OF FU MANCHU.
I’ve lost track of how many ROBIN HOOD series there have been in the last twenty years, but I would venture at least three, maybe four.
March 27th, 2010 at 8:01 am
There have been three major British Robin Hood series since the Richard Greene series finished. The first was THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD, which was a 6 episode BBC miniseries starring Martin Potter (???) as Robin. I remember it being terribly grim and serious and not really my cup of tea. It’s out on Brit DVD, but I don’t think that I will rush out to buy it.
The next big version was in the 80s, with Michael Praed and Jason Connery as the hero (don’t ask…). It was a rather mystical look at the legend, with Herne the Hunter giving advice to a very pagan Robin. This being the 80s, it was sometimes hard to tell whether Robin was using more beauty products than Marion. One suspects that Sherwood smelt strongly of hairspray at the time.
The newest one had Jonas Armstrong playing the greenwood hero as a pimply, cocky youth (the target audience?) who would be hardput to inspire anyone. You got the impression that no one in the production staff knew whether it was supposed to be serious or not. The whole thing abounded in anachronisms,and the ‘funny’ dialogue made it sound like a send-up, making the occasional nasty moments rather jarring. Another irritation came from the fact that the actor playing Guy of Gisbourne would have been perfect as Robin. It ran to three series, but was cancelled last year. Good!
Probably the most consistently amusing version in recent years was MAID MARION AND HER MERRY MEN, which was created and written by BLACKADDER’s Tony Robinson (he also played the Sherrif of Nottingham). A comedy retelling of the story, it had Kate Lonergan as an bossy, intelligent, crusading Marion, who bullied her wimpish boyfriend Robin into rebelling against Norman tyranny. Although superficially intened as a kid’s show, a lot of the gags would have gone right over the heads of that audience, and the best episodes can be appreciated by adults. One of the episodes, THE WHITISH KNIGHT, is a parody of the Praed/Connery show (complete with mock-CLANNAD soundtrack). ROBIN THE BAD has a double of Robin (his real name is Costner) being used by the Sherrif to blacken our hero’s name. The bad Robin is identifiable by the fact that he is the only man in 12th century England with an American accent…
March 27th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Bradstreet
Thanks for the detailed rundown. This is exactly what I needed. I may go for them all, eventually, but now I know in what order, and how urgently I want them.
Some more than others, obviously.
— Steve