Maxie macht Karriere

This was a hugely enjoyable film for those of us who were around when it was made. Even sixty years on I can still remember Battersea Funfair.

What I do wonder though, is how many in a modern audience will get all the topical jokes, a few for instance: the reference to Johnny being a butter patter: in those days Sainsbury's cut butter from a block, and patted it with wooden patters to the required weight; in the cinema Johnny buys a brickette ice-cream (without wafers); the 10/- fine if a half-naked girl moved during a tableau (Lord Chamberlain's rules - see Mrs Henderson Presents).

Among the nice touches: Alistair Sim's cameo as Hawtry Murington was quite brilliant from the opening, louring, shot of him to his accurate critique of the problems facing the British film industry; as Marjorie goes into see Otto Mann, casting director, a couch is just inside the door.

Although set in the North, the exterior shot of Chanters store is of Bentalls in Kingston. The station with the train back home is Kings Cross (the coaches are Eastern Region). And was the pawnbroker an uncredited Bernard Miles? Oh, and wasn't the 20 year old Diana Dors a dish? (And can somebody identify Joan Collins for me please).

The whole thing was a delight from start to finish (despite the lack of regional accents among the girls).

Alastair Sim, Diana Dors, Stanley Holloway, Dennis Price, George Cole and Sidney James in this Girl's Own story about a drippy young woman in the midlands chosen in a beauty pageant in Westbourne (Blackpool) to advertise soap. All the actors play their respective characters, Diana Dors as a bad girl in the pageant, Stanley Holloway as the avuncular father, Dennis Price as a philandering film star, George Cole as a ingenuous working class piker, and Sidney James as a dodgy geezer running a strip show. But it doesn't really save the contrived and well worn plot.

Made in the year of the Festival of Britain, this film is prefaced by a warning that it "Contains mild innuendo, cultural depictions of the era".

Pauline Stroud has long served as one the great warnings to aspiring actresses since she vanished almost without trace after playing the title role in this film, but actually aquits herself well and shows considerable cow-eyed charm.

Diana Dors as a hardened pro is supposed to be the film's glamour girl, but compared to the lovely Kay Kendal - wasted in a small part - she comes a very poor third; while harsh reality intrudes in the form of a predatory Dennis Price and Eddie Byrne's observation that life in austerity Britain for most girls consists of "seven years to live and then the kitchen sink."

It may interest people to know that appearing in the film uncredited as a contestant in a beauty contest is Ruth Ellis.

On July 13th 1955 she became the last woman hanged for murder in Great Britain. In a jealous rage the 28 year old night-club manageress fired six shots at her 24 year old lover David Blakely outside the Magdala Pub in Hampstead, London. Two bullets missed, one piercing the hand of a passer-by; two hit him in the back, one in the thigh and one in the left arm. He died instantly.

When sentenced to death the only thing she said was 'Thanks'.

The female star of the film was Diana Dors. Her greatest ever screen performance was in 'Yeild to the Night' the harrowing story of murderess Mary Price Hilton a character based on Ruth Ellis.

Consultant on the film was executioner Albert Pierrepoint - the man who hanged Ruth Ellis.

The movie industry turns out one of those "It's not easy in the moom pitcher business" movies every few years, like A STAR IS BORN, and this Launder-Gilliat production, made during the slide of the 1950s is their contribution to the field. Pauline Stroud is hectored into taking part into a local beauty pageant. This leads to a glamour competition, which she wins, when Diana Dors doesn't want to take time out from her more profitable life to accept the prize of a 3-month studio contract. Miss Stroud thinks she is on the road to stardom.... but the industry is full of chiselers and ineffectual nice guys down on their luck, while she is too mousy and moral to do more than flounder and sink.

There are plenty of interesting players, from Dennis Price and Miss Dors, to surprising unbilled cameos like Alastair Sim and Googie Withers; the beauty contestants are starlets who would become prominent over the next couple of decades, like Kay Kendall and Joan Collins. It's the dourest of comedies that could manage a general release, while never releasing its hold on the audience's attention.