La femme parfaite

"The creation of perfect women appears a self-defeating pursuit since", the late Philip Strick once wrote, "there are so many of them around already".

Although this truly bizarre farce seems on paper crying out for a disclaimer on Talking Pictures deploring it's attitude to women, it's actually the men who are portrayed as useless (no mean feat when played by the usually accomplished Nigel Patrick & Stanley Holloway) and the audience is laughing with Patricia Roc and Irene Handl rather than at them.

Plushly appointed but very silly, with Mickey Mousing music cues which which make it even more unfunny than it already would have been; it was dismissed by Denis Gifford as "heavy-going froth". And I'll go along with that.

I stumbled upon this movie one afternoon on TV. It's a pacey movie when compared to many British Movies of this era (Bernard Knowles experience as cinematographer on Hitch's 39 Steps may have benefitted him in this respect). The cast are splendid, if somewhat theatrical (English Farce), especially Miles Malleson as the dotty old inventor.

What fascinated me most was the similarities I began to notice with the acting of Leslie Banks as Cavendish with that of the exasperation of Basil Fawlty in "Fawlty Towers" a British TV show by ex-python John Cleese. The tortured expressions and heavily exaggerated body language were the first things to alert me to the "FT" connection. But there was more...

The pace increased exponentially along with the emerging complications of taking a beautiful female robot (impersonated by Malleson's neice) to a honeymoon suite in a posh hotel until the film ended in total chaos.

A foreign servant who spoke very little english and frequently misunderstood his manager's requests (Hmm, Manuel methinks!).

Nigel Patrick is to begin a job in a few weeks. Until then, his aunt, Philippa Gill, won't let him have any money. He and his valet, Stanley Holloway answer an ad from Miles Malleson. Malleson has just built a robot he has modeled on his niece, Patricia Roc. For plot purposes, he wants Patrick to field-test the automaton in a hotel. Meanwhile, he is reminded that he has a lecture give that evening. Miss Roc -- the real one; the fake one is played by the appropriately named Pamela Devis -- has been housebound too long and decides to pose as the robot for a night on the town.

This is a set-up for a farce that the movies have been using at least since Lubitsch's DIE PUPPE.. Like many a post-war British sex farce, it seems a bit sniggering and brittle, but the cast is perfect. Not only was Malleson born to play woolly-brained old men, but there's Irene Handl as a maid-of-all-work called "Buttercup" and David Hurst as a Swiss prototype for Manuel in FAWLTEY TOWERS.

A promising cast and premise are wasted in this woefully weak effort. The absence of a sharp script and tight direction is made worse by desperate over-acting. The participants were rewarded for the time they spent on the film. Unlike the viewers.

This is a movie very much of its time. That means some things have to be accepted in that context.

Movies based on plays often translate poorly to celluloid and perhaps that's the issue here.

The story and dialogue contain odd little holes and the humour sometimes seems places. Not quite forced but certainly not flowing from the story or situation directly.

The acting is good, especially from Patricia Roc and (the entirely silent) Pamela Devis.

The real credit I can give this movie is that I still really enjoyed it. If someone put the original play on, even AmDram, I'm pretty sure I'd be getting tickets!