''April in Portugal'' is a 1954 travel film directed by

Euan Lloyd Euan Lloyd (6 December 1923 – 2 July 2016) was a British film producer. Biography He began his career directing short travelogue documentaries, starting with '' April in Portugal'' in 1954 (not released until 1956). He worked in publicity ...

, starring

Jocelyn Lane Jocelyn "Jackie" Lane (born 16 May 1937) is an Austrian-born actress and model of the 1950s and 1960s. She was married to Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Early life Lane was born as Jocelyn Olga Bolton in Vienna, Austria in 1937. She ...

and narrated by

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...

. It was released in 1956.

Cast

as guide (as Jackie Lane) * Antonio Dos Santos *

Amália Rodrigues Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (23 July 1920 – 6 October 1999), known as simply Amália Rodrigues () or popularly as Amália, was a Portuguese fado singer (''fadista''). Dubbed ''Rainha do Fado'' ("Queen of Fado"), she was instrumen ...

as narrator * Fernando Gil and his Ballet * Santos Moreira

Production

In order to get permission to film ''

The Cockleshell Heroes ''The Cockleshell Heroes'' is a 1955 British Technicolor war film with Trevor Howard, Anthony Newley, Christopher Lee, David Lodge and José Ferrer, who also directed. The film depicts a heavily fictionalised version of Operation Frankton, t ...

'' in Portugal, Warwick Films had to make the documentary ''April in Portugal''.

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...

'' wrote: "This brief visit to Portugal is given the customary CinemaScopic treatment, and, in its effort to reveal the varied splendours of Lisbon, succeeds in telling us very little. Miss Jackie Lane, the film's guide (who wears a different creation in almost every shot) is accompanied by a smiling bullfighter, Antonio dos Santos, and a fulsome commentary delivered by Trevor Howard. The fudos singer, Amalia Rodrigues, renders several well-known songs – one of which, sung from a yacht on the Tagus, suddenly suggests that the film has taken to parodying itself – a folk dance team perform a few steps, a military parade is held in honour of the President of Brazil, and Antonio himself provides the climax shot at a Portuguese bull-fight. These, and sundry other events, are photographed in bright glossy colours, and the title tune is played, in a rich stercophonic arrangement, by George Melachrino's Orchestra. A chromium-piied travelogue which, nevertheless, wears a decidedly old-fashioned look."

References

External links

* 1954 films British short documentary films 1954 short documentary films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films Films scored by George Melachrino English-language short documentary films {{Short-film-stub