Car of Dreams

British attempt at American style romantic comedy. Doesn't really work but fun to watch for an early John Mills and the interesting Grete Mosheim. Ms Mosheim photographs beautifully in some shots and not at all well in others. Perhaps the cameraman or director lost interest at times ?

A good tune or two and having Robertson Hare on hand adds some sparks to this otherwise pretty run-of-the-mill production. The film is surprisingly too quickly paced for its own good for the first half hour, but once it stops rushing, it is becomes quite passable stuff, if not much else. There are some pleasant ice-skating sequences added in, probably just to buff up the running time, for they add very little to the story, but neither do they really detract from the story. It is not an awfully funny picture, and Grete Mosheim's airy-fairy performance has a tendency to get on the nerves, but it is rather watchable nevertheless.

I will freely admit that "Car of Dreams" is a very silly piece of fluff. Yet, despite its flaws, it's also a nice and enjoyable film. My advice is to stick with this one--it starts off slow but ends very well.

Grete Mosheim plays Vera--a very odd lady indeed. She loves to fantasize about having money and likes to go to shops and pretend she's loaded with cash. However, because she has none, she never buys anything--just pretends. One day, she's admiring a Rolls Royce--and once again, acting like she wants to buy the thing. However, her little game backfires, in a way, because the son of her employer (John Mills) meets her and is infatuated--and arranges for her to get the car for free (claiming she's won some prize). However, even after meeting him, she has no idea Mills is the factory owner's son--she just thinks he's a nice guy. But, things get VERY complicated when they begin to date and he decides to help her by raising her salary. Her coworkers know who he is and they think she does, too. And, since she's gotten a huge raise, they begin to believe she's his mistress! Where all this goes is just something you'll have to see.

While it was disconcerting at first to see and hear John Mills singing, he wasn't too bad and the songs were quite catchy. And the plot played a lot like a good American screwball comedy-romance. Pleasant characters, a very well-written plot and a real likability of everyone makes this a hard film to hate--even if it is, at times, very silly.

This obscure bit of romantic silliness stars John Mills, the talented British actor who went on to many great dramatic roles in American films. The plot involves a factory girl (played by Grete Mosheim with her unexplained German accent) who loves to shop and ends up with a free Rolls-Royce. An obscure little gem full of art deco sets, anti--Great Depression optimism, and cheerful tunes, especially "Do a Little Good to Someone."

Intriguing mild (very mild!) British musical comedy. Noteworthy mainly for the eponymous car (a Rolls Royce Phantom III coupe - those were the days when you get a RR PIII and still get change out of £2,000...) and some Brirish film stalwarts. The hero is a youthful John Mills near the start of his cinematic career; Robertson Hare has a supporting role, both trying to inject some life into a leaden script. The rather clunky back projections give some fascinating glimpses of 1930s London and the Lake District.

(Purists might quibble why the heroine (Grete Mosheim)has a German accent while her "sister" has a "cut glass" English accent) RW