Mad About Men

Quite a nice little film, possibly inspired by the many mermaid fairy tales of old.

Glynis Johns always looked lovely in no matter what film she was in; and Dora Bryan made ample use of her comic talents as Glynis Johns's dotty mermaid companion.

Anne Crawford was also turned in good a performance as Glynis Johns's jealous adversary - it is a pity that such a talented actress died so young. However, I must say that I much better enjoyed its prequel, "Miranda", made 6 years earlier in 1948.

8 out of 10

This is quite an enjoyable vehicle for a mischievous Glynis Johns, who doubles up as a gymnastics teacher ("Caroline") who is left a remote house on the Cornish coast, and a mermaid ("Miranda") who lives with her equally cheeky friend "Berengaria" (Dora Bryan) in a cave underneath. The two characters have a common ancestor and look identical, so when "Caroline" heads off on a cycling trip, her mermaid cousin takes her place - and immediately starts to charm just about every man in the village. Many of us who recall later performances from (Sir) Donald Sinden may forget just how handsome he was as he falls for her; as does "Col. Barclay Sutton" (Nicholas Phipps) whose fiancée "Barbara" (Anne Crawford) tires of the endless flirtations and sets about trying to put a spoke in her wheel. Margaret Rutherford is her usual, ebullient, self as the enthusiastically game nurse who is in on the whole thing from the start. It's amusingly suggestive at times, and the dialogue quite witty but the film is way too long, and once the joke has worn off it drags a bit. It is better, I felt, than the rather more rigid, staid original from 1948 however, and well worth a gander.

Mad About Men is a sequel to the innovative little British comedy Miranda. That film was about a mermaid coming out of water and befriending every male she met. This picks up some time after with Glynis Johns reprising her role not only as Miranda but also as stuffy teacher Caroline going to Cornwall to sell her house so she can marry snooty Peter Martyn. There she finds Miranda, realizes the two look just alike, and leaves Miranda in her place as herself. Naturally, Miranda is up to nothing but mischief, again befriending every male she meets. Brain surgeons are not needed to figure out how this all ends, but the film has a nice pace and keeps the whole thing afloat somehow. Like its predecessor, Mad About Men is charming, funny, and frivolous entertainment. Johns is breathtaking in colour. She exudes tons of sex appeal once again as the fishy nymphomaniacal mermaid looking for men. Margaret Rutherford reprises her role as the nurse who knows Miranda's secret and as always is a joy. The rest of the cast is very solid, and director Ralph Thomas does a more than workmanlike job creating some believability - a possible problem with this film, unlike Miranda, being in glorious colour.

Miranda is a nice mermaid who speaks perfect English. She meets up with a human who is her exact double. Apparently a distant relative had "relations" with a mermaid and this supposedly accounts for them looking 100% the same (a plot element only seen in movies and "The Patty Duke Show"). This nice mermaid and her nice counterpart decide to let Miranda pose as the other lady for a fortnight--during which time Miranda chases after men with wild abandon.

I am not a huge fan of the first mermaid film starring Ms. Johns (MIRANDA), though it was an amiable time-passer. Oddly, despite it being a very "small" film, a few people on IMDb gave it a score of 10, though I notice that the scores for this follow-up film, MAD ABOUT MEN, were not so inflated. This is really odd as both films are very similar and it's really a coin toss to decide which is the better picture. Interestingly enough, this sequel came 8 years after the original film. Also, while I have not seen it, apparently Ms. Johns made a brief cameo appearance as the mermaid in another film (HELTER SKELTER). So, overall, the film is charming and worth a look--just don't expect magic.

I never saw MIRANDA but this is a lively sequel to that film with GLYNIS JOHNS again playing the saucy mermaid with her usual charm.

Glynis is a flirtatious mermaid who takes the place of a schoolteacher for a couple of weeks, determined to find a better husband for her than the stuffy fiancé she's engaged to. They resemble each other greatly because, as "Miranda" describes it, they're both descended from the mermaid side of the family.

It's utter nonsense, played to the hilt by a cast intent on making it reasonably funny but only partly succeeding.

MARGARET RUTHERFORD overplays the role of a dotty nurse who looks after the mermaid and is in her element in over-the-top fantasy farce. DONALD SINDEN is a wealthy man Miranda has her eyes on as a possible husband for the schoolteacher.

It's filmed in garish looking color (unusual for a British film which usually featured muted color), but the charm begins to wear off fairly early as the plot gets sillier and sillier.

Summing up: Mermaid comedies are not my cup of tea and this one is sillier than most, especially when the mermaid's inability to walk is compensated by some weak plot contrivances which has her being carried around by the men with her mermaid tail barely concealed under a thin blanket.

Trivia note: Interesting to see JOAN HICKSON as the owner of a lodge, long before she became Jane Marple for British TV.