Miranda

What can I add about the pleasure of watching Glynis Johns in this delightful fishy fantasy film. Ms Johns captivates all the men around her after being snared in the sea by Griffith Jones, a doctor on a fishing holiday, having left his wife, Googie Withers, at home as she has no interest in fishing. Jones brings Miranda the mermaid back to his house for three weeks, thus causing romantic chaos involving the doctor, his friend, John McCallum, and the chauffeur David Tomlinson who all fall in love with her. She seduces them quite easily as they all embark on carrying her around, in a scheme to hide her mermaids tail from the other wives and girlfriends. Inevitably, having their faces so close to hers, they can't help but eventually wanting to kiss her. Margaret Rutherford is brought in by the doctor to nurse the mermaid which she's delighted to do as conveniently, she's always believed in mermaids. Brian Oulton is the dressmaker called to make some oversized dresses to cover her tail. A fairly short but quite memorable hit at the time of making apparently in 1948. I'm a huge fan of Glynis Johns and praise Talking Pictures TV for showing so many of her films recently and I look forward to watching the sequel I have recorded of Mad About Men.



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Back in the early '60s, when I was a very young lad, there were two television programs that held a great fascination for my young mind. One was the part live/part puppet-animated kiddie show "Diver Dan," which featured the undersea adventures of the titular hero, and showcased one very beautiful blonde mermaid, called Miss Minerva. The other program was one that I have a feeling not too many remember, for the simple reason that it only lasted 13 episodes in the fall of '63. That show was simply called "Glynis," and featured the exploits of its star, Welsh actress Glynis Johns, playing a kooky mystery writer. As a child, I was fascinated by this lovely heroine, with her cracked and husky voice (Glynis' voice has always been as distinctive, in its own way, as that of Jean Arthur, Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn), and my liking of her only increased over the decades, as I got to see her in such films as "Mary Poppins," "The Court Jester," "The Cabinet of Caligari," "The Vault of Horror" and others. Thus, it was perhaps inevitable that I was predisposed to enjoy Glyins' 1948 film "Miranda," a British fantasy in which she not only appears in the full flush of her beauty, but plays the titular blonde mermaid as well! As charming and delightful a film as could be imagined, "Miranda" was indeed a big hit with the public back when, leading to a belated but equally charming sequel, "Mad About Men," six years later.

In the film, one Dr. Paul Martin (Griffith Jones) decides to take a little fishing vacation in Cornwall, while his wife Clare (the great British actress Googie Withers, who had appeared three years earlier in one of this viewer's favorite films, "Dead of Night") stays at home in London. Martin casts out his line and winds up with the biggest catch of his life: Miranda the mermaid, who drags him over the side of his boat and brings him down to her underwater cave. Miranda proceeds to turn the poor doctor's life upside down (indeed, when we first see her, she is seen upside down, from the doctor's supine POV). She tells him that he is a prisoner there but that she will let him go if he brings her to London with him for a few weeks, so that she can have some fun and look around. Thus, Miranda is brought to the doctor's home, ensconced in a wheelchair with her fin wrapped in a blanket, and Clare is told that the beautiful creature is a convalescent case who needs looking after. Miranda wastes little time enchanting all the men around her, including the Martins' chauffeur Charles (David Tomlinson), much to the chagrin of his fiancée Betty (Yvonne Owen), as well as painter/artist Nigel (John McCallum), who is engaged to the Martins' neighbor, Isobel (Sonia Holm). Dr. Martin also brings in a very eccentric personage to look after her, Nurse Carey (the great Margaret Rutherford, who had starred in another great British fantasy, "Blithe Spirit," three years earlier), while Miranda engages in all kinds of hijinks, including catching fish at the zoo, eating a trayful of cockles being sold by a street vendor, singing her siren song at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, and, as mentioned, coming close to busting up no less than three relationships....

"Miranda" was adapted for the screen by Peter Blackmore, from his play, and he has just peppered his clever script with an abundance of witty lines. (Thus, "Did you catch any big ones?" Clare asks her husband on his return. And later, as Miranda's behavior becomes increasingly suspicious, Googie mutters "There's something very fishy about this case.") Director Ken Annakin, who would go on to direct such films as "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" and "Battle of the Bulge," helms his film marvelously, keeping it to a compact 80 minutes. The film is in the best tradition of British cinematic class and quality, and is a fully adult and sophisticated fantasy. (Interestingly, Clare becomes suspicious of Miranda by dint of the fact that there are no panties in her drawer, and the word "panties" is mentioned several times; this, 11 years before the American film "Anatomy of a Murder" mentioned the same word and caused something of a scandal here in the benighted States!) But if there is any one element of the film that can be pointed to as its principal triumph, it is Glynis herself, who is absolutely charming (sorry, can't get away from that word) in the title role. "She's the ultimate catch," proclaimed the film's poster, and very few male viewers would be inclined to disagree. "She's incredibly pretty," proclaims Isobel, to which Clare responds "She's pretty incredible," and again, few would give the two beleaguered ladies any argument. Glynis makes the film one very sweet and enjoyable fantasy, indeed; a film that remains entertaining and winning all the way up to that truly surprising final shot, and the last word that appears on the screen; not "THE END," as might ordinarily be expected, but rather, and hilariously, FIN.

A charming fantasy in which a mermaid appears to a young husband who has got away from it all to go fishing: Glynis Johns shines in the lead as the playful miss with the fish's tail who starts to snare all the men she comes across. Griffith Jones is the man who starts to regret bringing his find back to his home and wife (Googie Withers), while David Tomlinson is appealing as the driver with big ears who Miranda seems particularly taken with.

Quite the best performance in this confection comes from the incomparable Margaret Rutherford, joyous as the ageing nurse who has always believed in the existence of magical creatures such as mermaids. With an amusing and intriguing ending (and a credit ‘ Tail by Dunlop'), ‘Miranda' is one of the highlights of 1940s British cinema. Johns and Tomlinson would appear together again memorably in 1964 as the parents in ‘Mary Poppins'. Jones was still acting on stage recently in his late eighties in small Shakespeare roles. And the mermaid story showed up in another guise with Daryl Hannah, Tom Hanks, and ‘Splash!' some 40 years after ‘Miranda'.

I remember seeing this film as a very young boy, and I've never forgotten the mesmerizing magical effect that it had on me. I also saw "Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid", but I think "Miranda" was the better of the two films. Although a black and white production, the "special effects" used for the mermaid's tail are still eerily alive in my mind all these years later. Glynis Johns was really funny as the aquatic sea babe. I fully appreciated the more recent Ron Howard film "Splash", in it's own way. I am not at all sure if "Miranda" inspired this modern story, but it's not important, since both stand on their own humorous cinematic merits. I've been wishing, and praying, and hoping to find "Miranda" in the video classic section of my local film rental establishments for years to no avail. I'm not sure if it is available, but it would be a real kick to see it after all these years!

This is a one-of-a-kind fantasy movie that beautifully showcased such major talents as Glynis Johns and Margaret Rutherford. I can hardly wait til this movie is made available for sale (if the film is still in good shape, why hasn't it been available yet?). In my view, there simply isn't enough information, or good movies, on the subject of mermaids, and hopefully this could be rectified by an updated version of this movie..I haven't casted it in my mind yet, but there are a handful of worthies that come to mind for Miranda. However, it will be a more difficult task to find someone even close to our beloved Margaret Rutherford.