A WEEKEND WITH LULU

Leslie Phillips

A WEEKEND WITH LULU (1961). Director: John Paddy Carstairs.

Timothy (Leslie Phillips of Doctor in Love) wants to go on Holiday with his fiancee, Deirdre (Shirley Eaton of Goldfinger). To that end his buddy Fred (Bob Monkhouse) lends him a caravan -- or trailer -- that he borrowed from someone else. They hitch the trailer -- which is called "Lulu" -- to an ice cream van, and all seems set until Tim discovers that Deirdre's rather horrid mother, Flo (Irene Handl), is going along with them, along with Fred. As they sleep the trailer somehow winds up being put on board a train as "freight" and they wind up over the border and in France. In a foreign country and not certain how to get back before the weekend is up, the foursome have various misadventures involving everything from the Tour de France to an amorous French count named de Grenoble (Alfred Marks) before finding their way back.

Eaton, Phillips, Monkhouse and Handl

You want to like the amiable Weekend because the players are more or less likable and there are some amusing situations in the movie, but aside from one solid laugh the movie never really erupts into hilarity. The script seems written on the go, throwing in sequences as the crew and our characters drive around the French countryside hoping to find chuckles. Phillips is fine as the genial Timothy, and Eaton is attractive and more-than-competent as his somewhat out-of-his-league fiancee. Monkhouse, a very popular British comedian, is fine as the more larcenous of the two men, although his schemes often backfire. Handl makes the most of her role as the mother, although through most of the movie she's too unpleasant to really take to. John Paddy Carstairs also directed Made in Heaven.

Verdict: For a classic British comedy watch The Belles of St. Trinian's instead. **. 

MADE IN HEAVEN

Sonja Ziemann and Petula Clark 

MADE IN HEAVEN (1952). Director: John Paddy Carstairs.

In a post-war British village, Basil Topham (David Tomlinson) and his wife, Julie (Petula Clark), live with his parents but are hoping to move into a new house -- and get a new cook because grandpa (A. E. Matthews) burns all of their food. They are expecting an elderly maid to arrive, but instead it turns out to be the beautiful Hungarian refugee, Marta (Sonja Ziemann), who sets a lot of hearts and hormones a 'flutter. Julie isn't crazy with this situation and matters aren't helped when she and Basil are chosen to be competitors for a side of bacon if they prove to be the happiest married couple in the village. But then Marta starts coming on to Basil, the bacon is stolen, the Vicar is in an uproar, and Marta's ex-fiance (Ferdy Mayne) shows up with a new marriage proposal. Yes, Made in Heaven has a strange plot, but while it's amiable enough, it has no laugh-out-loud moments. You know a comedy is in trouble when the funniest line is that old gag about "saving your bacon." Watching this, one gets the impression that a memorable film might have been made if MGM had bought the rights, turned this into a musical, hired top stars and some great American character actors, and turned the whole thing into a jolly farce with singing and dancing. The performers are all good, however, including Sophie Stewart and Charles Victor [The Woman in Question] as Basil's parents, Richard Wattis [The Prince and the Showgirl] as the Vicar, and Athene Seyler [I Thank a Fool] as the Vicar's formidable sister, Rosabelle. Most Americans got to know Petula Clark when she had a hit with the record "Downtown" in the sixties, but she'd been performing in England for years, and later appeared in Goodbye, Mr Chips with Peter O'Toole. Ziemann primarily worked in German movies. Tomlinson [War-Gods of the Deep] was a busy actor on both sides of the Atlantic. John Paddy Carstairs also directed He Found a Star with Sarah Churchill.

Verdict: Well, it's certainly different.... **.

HE FOUND A STAR

Not a man in drag: Sarah Churchill

HE FOUND A STAR (1941). Director: John Paddy Carstairs.

With the help of his secretary, Ruth (Sarah Churchill),  Lucky Lyndon (Vic Oliver) opens his own talent agency and hopes for the best. He decides to take clients who are going nowhere fast, exploit their often minimal assets, and turn them into winners, such as an old baritone who is turned into a novelty act called the One-Man Band. Meanwhile Ruth is carrying an inexplicable torch for Lucky, who seems to have a thing for an utterly mediocre singer named Suzanne (Evelyn Dall), supposedly a big star. Sarah Churchill (the daughter of Winston Churchill) is a very adept and charming performer, but she's photographed so badly in this that her somewhat masculine features may make you think at first that she's Rex Harrison with heavy make up and dressed as a woman! Oliver is quite good as Lucky, and there are good turns from Robert Sansom as Hargreaves, Robert Atkins as Frank Forrester, and especially Jamaican singer-actor Uriel Porter, as George Washington Brown, who does a wonderful rendition of "I'm Gonna Walk All Over God's Heaven."

Verdict: British version of a Republic musical with somewhat higher production values. ***.