Brandy for the Parson

The first of three aggressively light-hearted comedies attractively shot on location (this time it's the fictitious village of Brampton on the Kent coast) directed for Group Three by former documentarist John Eldridge before he died at the age of just 43.

Yet another British film of the period when postwar shortages invested smuggling with - as a judge dryly puts it - a "spurious aura of adventure and romance", the smuggler this time being a dashing young Kenneth More. But by far the most fascinating performance actually comes from Jean Lodge, plainly in reality haughty and high maintenance, but working jolly hard at being a jaunty good sport in the sort of role usually played by Dinah Sheridan.

"Brandy for the Parson" was the first film for Britains' Group 3, Ltd., set up to "encourage young film makers of talent and promise," and this lightweight comedy comes through via cast and crew on the "talent and promise" attributes, especially with the musical background written by John Addison.

Bill Harper (James Donald) and Petronilla Brand (Jean Lodge) are a young couple that, through a series of mishaps and accidents, get unintentionally involved in a brandy-smuggling (from France) racket.

Because of an accidental sinking of Tony Rackham's (Kenneth More)boat, Bill and Patricia take him across the Channel on their boat which, to their dismay, is soon filled with several kegs of brandy. It then evolves into a series of intentional and unintentional dodges trying to evade the Customs officials.

James Donald, Kenneth More, and Jean Lodge are asked by a sailor with a foundering ship to head over to France and pick up something for him. It turns out to be brandy for smuggling. When they get it back to England, they find it's much in demand.... but somehow they can't get it off their hands.

It's a rather slow comedy, but that's because it's shot in the fields and towns and standing stones dotting the pleasant lands of the country, and the jokes punctuate the situations, rather than being the point of this amiable film.

It's a first starring role for Kenneth More, who's second-billed after James Donald. It was almost Audrey Hepburn's first lead, but delays in production ended with her replacement by Miss Lodge

Watched on UK's Talking Pictures, a low budget channel who find gems like this film. The copy was a little dark and sound muffled but this film is a bit of a gem I have never seen before.

The insights into life in post war England are interesting (especially the cars). The story is perfectly acceptable for its time, surprisingly the actors include many British stalwarts from the era. The script, that could easily be brought up to date, is more light-hearted than comedy, without a gun, car chase, nudity or swearing that modern film-makers seemingly have to use. I would give it more stars if the character development were greater but the running time prevented this.

All in all a film I enjoyed and hope to see many more like it as Talking Pictures unearth them.

It is funny how once Ealing had produced an innovative comedy lesser producers came along with an attempt to ride on their shirtails.For example Passport to Pimlico beget the far lesser Green Grow The Rushes.In this instance Whiskey Galore was clearly the inspiration.The problem is that the producers didn't have the talented casts,director or writers and so what they ended up with was a woefully unfunny production littered with eccentric actors doing eccentric things in the hope that they might just light a spark.The leading players are just not cut out for playing this type of comedy.The writers and directors have clearly felt that if they piled one unusual incident on top of another then at least some may come to life.Well they don't and the stalwart character actors can do nothing to save this leaden farce which feels as if it is twice its brief running time.