comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...
directed by
John Guillermin
John Guillermin (11 November 192527 September 2015) was a French-British film director, writer and producer who was most active in big-budget, action-adventure films throughout his lengthy career.
His more well-known films include ''I Was Monty ...
Richard Hearne
Richard Lewis Hearne (30 January 1908 – 23 August 1979) was an English actor, comedian, producer and writer. He is best remembered for his stage and television character Mr Pastry.
Career
Hearne was born in Norwich, Norfolk, in 1908, the son ...
Sid James
Sidney James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. He was best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series.
Born to a mi ...
,
Reg Varney
Reginald Alfred Varney (11 July 1916 – 16 November 2008) was an English actor, entertainer and comedian. He is best remembered for having played the lead role of bus driver Stan Butler in the LWT sitcom ''On the Buses'' (1969–73) and its th ...
,
Kenneth Connor
Kenneth Connor, (6 June 1918 – 28 November 1993) was a British stage, film and broadcasting actor, who rose to national prominence with his appearances in the ''Carry On'' films.
Early life
Connor was born in Highbury, Islington, London ...
and
Michael Medwin
Michael Hugh Medwin, OBE (18 July 1923 – 26 February 2020) was an English actor and film producer.
Life and career
Medwin was born in London. He was educated at Canford School, Dorset, and the Institute Fischer, Montreux, Switzerland. He ...
. The film features a variety of unusual camera work such as unexpected extreme
close-up
A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, photography, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot (filmmaking), shot that tightly film frame, frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard s ...
s and
fast motion
Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ...
sequences.
Plot
A writer named Wrigley (
Richard Hearne
Richard Lewis Hearne (30 January 1908 – 23 August 1979) was an English actor, comedian, producer and writer. He is best remembered for his stage and television character Mr Pastry.
Career
Hearne was born in Norwich, Norfolk, in 1908, the son ...
) creates a comic strip character named ''Miss Robin Hood'' for a children's story paper. It is a modernized retelling of the
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...
legend in which the heroine robs banks with the assistance of a gang of teenage girls and then redistributes the money.
Unfortunately the cartoon is dropped from the paper, and Wrigley leaves his job. However, Miss Honey ( Margaret Rutherford), who is director of a home for the orphans of London in Hampstead, recruits Wrigley to carry out a little light safebreaking, believing that he has such skills because he created ''Miss Robin Hood''. Difficulties arise when
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
becomes involved.
Cast
Production
Disney were making ''The Story of Robin Hood'' and were reportedly unhappy that the Group 3 Film could be confused with theirs. Filming took place in June 1952.
Critical reception
The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' called it "a haphazard mixture of farce and fantasy... this slapdash and undergraduatish piece."
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote, "Even with stalwart Margaret Rutherford playing the principal role—that of a good-natured looney—in this utterly slap-happy film, and even with several cheering flashes of tomfoolery to light the way, the whole thing is just a bit too labored—too fatuous—to be continuous fun."
Graeme Clark of the website The Spinning Image wrote, "It's all very fluffy and inconsequential, but with Patrick Campbell contributing to the script and this array of talent in front of the camera, vintage Brit comedy fans are well catered for."
''Filmink'' said "It has a decent enough central idea... but it doesn’t have enough faith in the idea, so all this other extraneous stuff is added."
TCMDB
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of A ...
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...