Lady Godiva

Marjorie Clark is a very pretty girl from a hard working family, she doesn't ask for much in life. Yet after what seemed to be a pointless beauty pageant she is transported into the realm of stardom, a sequence of events that brings wealth, respect, and the unwritten pitfalls of fame............

If i'm totally honest here, then the only reason i came across this film was because at this moment in time i'm on a mission to see any film that has the names of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat attached to it. I saw that Dennis Price, Sid James, George Cole, Diana Dors, Stanley Holloway and Alistair Sim were in the cast list, British institutions one and all, yet still i had low expectations with it. I had never heard of it before, my parents are both staunch British cinema fans, they have surely never put this one my way, it's rated just above five right here on IMDb, yep, i certainly wasn't expecting much.

Perhaps that is why i enjoyed it so much?, i mean don't get me wrong here, it's not one i will go back and revisit, but the performance of Pauline Stroud as Marjorie Clark and the dark undertones of the plot make this something of a must see piece. The perils and the highs and lows of a pretty girl with stars in her eyes, has rarely been so poignant as it is here, the film has some splendid comedy moments, and also has a lovely little romantic core, but chiefly it's the downturn of events that is the scripts crowning moment. I would wager that IMDb tagging this as a genre comedy only is a big error, but cest la vie, they own the site, and i'm but a mere user!. Fans of Alistair Sim and Sid James should note that their parts in the film are pretty thin, so seeking this out for those actors will leave you feeling pretty flat, but hopefully, there may be something i have written that will pique your interest when you are stuck for an intelligent comedy/drama from the Great part of Britain. 7/10

Footnote:There is some wonderful, and quite creepy trivia attached to the film, if that has you intrigued then i point you to the user comment for this film written by Jeremy Beadle!!!, it's not hard to find since at this moment in time there be only four of us who have bothered to write a comment for the film!!.

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.

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.

Irritated with her boyfriend "Johnny" (George Cole) for trying to tell her what she can and cannot do, an attractive young woman named "Marjorie Clark" (Pauline Stroud) joins a beauty contest as an act of defiance. Much to her surprise, she wins the title of "Lady Godiva" and gets to ride fully clothed in the local parade a little while later. She also gets the chance to compete in another, more serious, beauty contest soon afterward. Thanks in large part to the help of another beauty contestant named "Dolores August" (Diana Dors), she also manages to win that contest. Unfortunately, as she delves deeper into the glamour industry, she discovers that things aren't always as they seem, and reality quickly catches up to her. Now, instead of revealing more, I'll just say this was an interesting British comedy with a good plot and solid acting to support it. The problem, however, is that the humor wasn't nearly as sharp as it should have been, and for that reason, I have rated this movie accordingly.

Pauline Stroud the star of Lady Godiva Rides Again had a respectable career. But a lot of very familiar folks are down the cast list of this film

In Lady Godiva Strikes Again, Stroud a working class girl from the midlands who on a lark enters a beauty contest and wins. She gets to ride as Lady Godiva did through the streets of Coventry, but this could also mean a career in the British cinema.

Her father Stanley Holloway playing a role as dad that Eugene Pallette would have done in America is real skeptical about this. So's her working class boyfriend George Cole, nice guy but a bit of a lout. No reason she shouldn't reach for the stars.

Dennis Price is the nominal star of this film, but he's got a limited amount of screen time. He plays a supercilious screen star, a whole lot like the part he did in Kind Hearts And Coronets. An arranged studio date with Stroud turns out to be a disaster all around with the paparazzi getting a most indelicate picture of him.

Down the cast list though you will find British beauties Diana Dors and Joan Collins and Kay Kendall as contestants, Sidney James as a casting director and Alastair Sim as a milk drinking (ulcers) studio head. Even Trevor Howard who was a reigning star of the UK cinema has an unbilled walk on.

It all does work out in the end and Stroud's a wiser girl for it. Lady Godiva never had a ride like this though.