Made in Heaven

Everything about this film seems very dated even the beautiful Technicolour photography.Did this sort of England ever exist I wonder.The film was probably made in colour because of the encroaching competition of television.One assumes that a German actress was chosen for distribution reasons.The real problem with this film is that the basic premise of this film is just plain silly and unfunny.There is a reasonable cast in which A E Matthews shines,however the script is just not very good.The basic concept of a side of bacon being a very desirable commodity due to it being a rationed item would probably be lost on modern audiences.

The German actress, Sonja Ziemann, plays a Hungarian maid, Marta. Could casting her as a Hungarian in any way be related to lingering feelings about the war? Regardless, when this pretty lady arrives to be the maid for a British family, problems develop as the father and son (David Tomlinson) begin acting googly-eyed whenever she is around. This is a serious problem, as Tomlinson is happily married to a sweet lady (Petula Clark) and this happiness is at risk due to his over-solicitous behavior towards the maid. To make things worse, the town has a happiest married couple contest--and this couple is nominated.

How men act around Marta in this film is a bit ridiculous and overdone. It certainly isn't subtle and the film is a bit silly. Yet, it's still oddly sweet and enjoyable. Not a film to rush to see but a nice time-passer.

At first I thought I was looking at a Disney live-action movie. There were the bright colors and David Tomlinson in a bowler hat (looking unaccountably like Donald O'Connor). But, no, it's a J. Arthur Rank film directed by the reliable Paddy Carstairs. Tomlinson is married to Petulia Clark and living with his folks, and waiting for their house to be built. It's a fairly idyllic situation in which they're up to be awarded a flitch of bacon at the local fair for being a happily married couple, when in comes the home's new maid from Hungary, Sonja Ziemann, who is very familiar with all the men. For some reason, the lietmotif for the dark-haired beauty is "Aupres de ma Blonde." In other words, it's the sort of happy mish-mosh that in the US would be produced by Joe Pasternak for a wholesome, family-friendly effort. In the US, there would be a role for S.Z. Sakall. Here, the equivalent role is taken by A.E. Matthews as Tomlinson's grandfather. It's minor and nonsense and forgettable and kills eighty minutes well enough.