Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
View MoreExcellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
View MoreThere is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.
View MoreIt's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
View MorePatricia Roc is on leave from a French convent. She's wearing her nun's habit when the French authorities pick her up and accuse her of being a German spy. She LOOKS like a nun. She has a clean, honest, pretty face that's not overly expressive. I guess I should say she looks the way a nun SHOULD look. My nuns didn't resemble her at all. Mine impressed me as huge bat-like creatures waiting to swoop down on you with a ruler.Anyway, she's a novice, not yet having taken her vows. What this almost always means is that there's a man in her future -- and so there is.The Germans occupy the town and Roc is given crummy clothes and transferred to a guarded compound that used to be a luxury hotel, somewhere near Rouen. There are a thousand or more other British women held prisoner there. They are the usual varied group. There is Flora Robson with her long face and squinched eyes exuding authority. There is the cynical babe crepitating with wisecracks. There is the stripper (ie., whore) who is selling her body to the German sergeant in return for a single room instead of a double. There are one or two hefty Nazi moles in the group too.Their life in the internment camp didn't strike me as particularly demanding. Nobody complains about the food. It's an attractive resort hotel, after all, with spacious grounds including a summer house. Their most ardent complaint is that they have to schlepp hot water up four flights of stairs to take a bath and then two at a time must share the tub before the water cools. Except for the barbed-wired inner and outer walls, conditions are better than those under which I grew up.But the capacious rooms and the absence of genuine hardships is necessary to maintain the tone of the story, which is Gemutlich and even gay. The girls stage shows in the ballroom, with costumes and a band, to entertain one another as well as the German staff.Then -- cherchez l'homme. A British bomber is disabled over the compound and three men parachute inside its walls. They must be hidden from the soldiers and the spies. And then, after a romantic interlude between Patricia Roc -- whose character has the same name as an attractive girl I once took to Roseland in New York -- the three airmen must be helped to escape. As the aviators speed away in their stolen staff car, the ladies all gather on the stage and sing, "There'll Always Be An England." The story isn't uninteresting and there are a couple of witty lines in the dialog. At the beginning, Roc is hustled onto a German truck filled with other captured internees. The woman next to Roc introduces herself and begins gabbing away. A third girl is sitting there and, not having been introduced, asks, "Don't I exist?" The other snaps, "Yes, unfortunately." For all the dashing around, giggling, and chat, it's never slow or boring and there are some moments of genuine drama. A diverting war-time piece.
View MoreI recently stumbled upon this film on Channel 4. Thankfully I only missed the first ten minutes as it turned out to be a most enjoyable film.If you're reading this review then you have most probably seen the movie so a synopsis is not needed.All I really have to say is that the mainly female cast is absolutely superb. I defy anyone to pick out a single performance that stands out from the rest. Phyllis Calvert, Patricia Roc, Thora Hird..the excellent cast just oozes British actresses who went on to even greater performances.The only thing that let's this film down are the actors who play the British soldiers. Whilst they are good, I found them maybe a little too old for the parts.All in all though, it is a splendid film. If a remake were made today, it could boast an amazing cast of todays British talent.I checked IMDb after watching this film and sadly, most of the cast are with us no more. It is as a tribute to them that I write this little review.
View MoreAnyone waiting in vain for a number 63 bus in November, 1944, who happened to see this film soon afterwards would have realised that the missing omnibus was being driven through this plot that makes gossamer look like industrial strength tungsten. It's almost impossible to imagine that anyone who saw it in late 1944 or early 1945 and had endured five years of austerity would not have been insulted by this portrait of women actually living in interement but enjoying better lifestyles than those enjoying freedom at home. There's a token scene at the beginning where established internees haul buckets of water upstairs to fill a bath for a batch of newcomers but otherwise the women are expertly dressed and coiffed and as icing on the cake Phyliss Calvert turns up to a concert - within the château and one that has not been rehearsed and/or even mentioned until it is in full swing - in an evening dress magicked from God knows where. On the credit side it is a chance to see a turnout of half the distaff side of the British film industry at the time via the likes of Flora Robson, Thora Hird (even carrying her own daughter, Janette Scott, then a babe in arms) Ann Crawford, Jean Kent, Renee Asherson and an uncredited Dulcie Gray. Nice cast, shame about the joke of a plot.
View MoreThe critics were a bit sniffy at the time of its release, but this is one of the jolliest films made during the war. It concerns a group of English women caught in France during World War II and interned in a posh hotel. It's full of the sort of "There'll always be an England" stiff upper lip stuff that looks so kitch these days, and yet there's also a feeling of release for these women since there are no men around.Sadly, some RAF men accidentally parachute into the camp and the women have to hide them from the Germans. The men are undercast and a bit dreary, but they wouldn't stand a chance against the cream of British character actresses anyway.The rest of the film concerns the women's attempts to smuggle the men out of the camp. The plot however is irrelevent. What matters is the way these actresses work without having to compete for billing with any male star. The film is fun, risque and the best British romp before Tom Jones.
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