Village of Daughters

For some reason Eric Sykes did not have a hand in the screenplay.If he had then surely it would have been funny in parts.He didn't and it is not remotely funny at all.This despite John me Mesurier as a priest with a truly dreadful Italian accent.Every aspect of this film is a caricature of Italian manners but with as many clichés as you could conceive of.They even bring in the mafia to try and impart some humour into an otherwise tame and limp finale.Lots of familiar English character actors such as Warren Mitchell,Martin Benson,Graham Stark and Mario Fabrizi appear but unfortunately they cannot help.What was Eric Sykes trying to do singing under the end credits?

This fairly enjoyable little comedy was part of a batch of British films made by MGM-Elstree studios in England, some of which made it to the United States and some, like this one, that did not. The Director/producer/writers involved here were the same group that made the highly successful Agatha Christie adaptation 'Murder She Said' with Margaret Rutherford the year previously (1961).

As for this film, it has an Ealing Studio flavor to a degree, but is unlike most other British comedies of the period because it keeps itself stationed in Sicily throughout (the exception being the opening montage in London). Eric Sykes plays the low-rent English salesman who takes a trip to Sicily and ends up getting mixed up in a virtual contest to pick the bride of an expatriate member of an old family of the area who is coming back to marry and willing to lay down some nice money for the family of the bride. Veteran English comic actor John LeMesurier plays the local priest (the Don) who convinces the local patriarchs to let the first stranger who comes to town be the one who decides which of their daughters is chosen. Enter Sykes. But not only does Sykes have to contend with the conniving local families, he also ends up getting mixed up with the town firebrand Scilla Gabel. Then there is the classic Sicilian vendetta obsession that rears up toward the finish, putting Sykes in further hot water. It's all good-natured fun, not particularly clever, but glides along smoothly. Certainly the feminine pulchritude on display is impressive---virtually a satire of buxom Italian peasant girls that populated that country's films throughout the fifties. Gabel and Yvonne Romain are the two main females on display and they are an undeniable eyeful. This film is no great shakes, and not comparable to the Rutherford-Agatha Christie movies the filmmakers were involved in, but it breezes by with its light charm.

Hmmm! This is really just a rather tacky and contrived vehicle for British comic Eric Sykes ("Harris"). He is a traveling salesman who finds himself - somehow - in a remote Italian village where he is all of a sudden flavour of the month. How come? Well it seems that all of their menfolk have gone off searching for work and the lassies there haven't seen a man for quite a while. To make matters worse - one of the town's esteemed citizens has written from London asking for a bride and unable to decide which, the local squire "Don Calogere" (John le Mesurier) and the priest decide that the selection should be made by their first neutral visitor. "Harris" now has to fend off his own admirers and make a choice that can only divide the town. The joke wears really thin all too quickly, and though the relationship between Sykes and the unapologetically disinterested "Angelina" (Scilla Gabel) is the high point, it still isn't very high. Skyes was an hugely popular comedian in Britain and George Pollock no slouch when it came to movie-making, but here this misfires way more that it works and at ninety minutes is far too long. Not for me, this, sorry.

Take a comic genius (Eric Sykes), sprinkle in a collection of regular British TV comic actors (John Le Mesurier, Warren Mitchell), simmer over a simple but dated comedy premise (a salesman discovers an Italian village full of nubile women) and you have the comedy-movie equivalent of potatoes: archetypal and essential, but a bit bland.

Maybe this should be funny. But it ant. The premise is flawed and while Sykes was a successful scriptwriter and TV actor he cannot carry this film. The script is boring and clichéd. The Italian accents ( LeMesieur's is painfully bad) and stereotypes, vendettas, donkeys, communists, fussy priests and mayors, frumpy mammas, are tiresome after a short while. Most of the actors are English so unconvincing as Sicilians The film seems to rely on buxom babes to keep people watching but this too is rather dull after a while. I found myself not bothering to follow the action( such as it was) because it was confusing and tired. British comedy doesn't always travel well and its not surprising that this odd yawn-fest was never shown in the USA. Id hardly ever say this of a film. But it not really worth watching. After it was over I couldn't think of any moment in it that had been even mildly amusing.