The Adventures of Jane

This film is based on the comic strip in England, which ran for many years, chronicling Jane, a pretty young lady who gets herself involved in situations and somehow ends up losing her dresses in the process. The lead, Ms. Oorter, was the model for Jane, but herein lies the problem for me. I feel that though she is an attractive lady she was too old to play her (she was about 36 when the film was released). I imagined Jane should be younger and they somewhat rectified that situation in a film called "Jane And The Lost City", made in the 80's. This film muddles along and the plot is pretty flimsy. There are elements of interest, but I feel even Peter Butterworth, who was in many Carry On films later, is somewhat wasted as a drunken man just stumbling around. Not horrible by any means, its just not that good. "Jane And The Lost City", though campy, was better. This film is less than an hour, but I still feel it was not good enough.

Low-budget attempt to cash in on the (waning) popularity of the saucy British comic strip is very thin soup indeed. The innocent Jane would repeatedly lose her clothing in the course of her adventures in print but only has her skirt ripped off a couple of times on celluloid due to the censorship rules of the time. The plot, involving diamond smugglers who use Jane as an unsuspecting mule, feels like an afterthought. Carry On regular Peter Butterworth makes an early appearance as an unfunny drunk who mistakenly sleeps with Jane's dachshund, Fritz.

This is little better or more than an extension of the 1930's "Daily Mirror" comic strip about a rather hapless heroine "Jane" who frequently gets herself into scrapes that usually end up with her scantily clad (by the standards of the day) and in need of some sort of gallant rescue. In this film, she is given a bracelet without knowing that it contains an expensive diamond and her admirer and his slimy associate try to use her to smuggle the jewel into the country then to abscond with it. If one was to be seriously critical at all of this farcical little yarn, then it would that Christabel Leighton-Porter was probably just too old to portray the rather empty-headed bimbo that she was meant to be. There's a fun little cameo from Peter Butterworth as the drunk; but otherwise this is just a rather politically incorrect, forgettable, Saturday morning feature.

'Jane' was a popular comic strip character seen in British newspapers in the 1940s. She was a glamorous figure, ever losing her clothing in order to titillate the war-haunted male readership, and THE ADVENTURES OF JANE is a film designed to bring her voluptuous talents to the screen. It was made in Brighton on an obviously cheap budget, but sadly other than the novelty value there isn't really much reason to tune in.

The problem with the film isn't Jane so much, as Christabel Leighton-Porter does a pretty good job in the role. She's no actress, of course, but she's a statuesque blonde who makes an impact. There are a couple of mildly racy moments in which she loses her skirt or parades around in her underwear, but these feel very tame by modern standards and of course there's no nudity even hinted at.

The rest of the plot is episodic in nature and involves a gang of criminals who use Jane to smuggle a priceless diamond into the country. The emphasis is on dated and genteel comedy throughout but the film lacks decent actors and plotting to make it work. Jane's dachshund, Frits, is probably the best actor in it. Watch out for Peter Butterworth in a random extended cameo playing a drunk.

I see the leading lady nearly every day.She was the model for "The Naked Lady" statue which stands near the junction of the A406 and A1 in Henleys Corner North London.I would say that she is a lot more mobile as the statue than she was as the leading lady of this almighty load of rubbish made at Brighton Studios.She simply cant act and so the film is simply amateur theatricals.the story,when it actually gets going is strictly second rate.However we do get to see a young petter Butterworth drunkly get into bed with Fritz the dog,being kissed and thinking he is with Jane.That is probably about the only memorable moment in this truly awful film.