Brandy for the Parson | |
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![]() British theatrical poster | |
Directed by | John Eldridge |
Written by | Walter Meade John Dighton Alfred Shaughnessy (additional scenes & dialogue) |
Based on | story Brandy for the Parson by Geoffrey Household |
Starring | James Donald Kenneth More Jean Lodge |
Cinematography | Martin Curtis |
Edited by | John Trumper |
Music by | John Addison |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Associated British-Pathé (UK) |
Release date | 20 May 1952 (London) (UK) |
Running time | 79 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £50,000 [1] |
Brandy for the Parson is a 1952 British comedy film directed by John Eldridge and starring Kenneth More, Charles Hawtrey, James Donald and Jean Lodge. [2] It was based on a short story by Geoffrey Household from Tales of Adventurers (1952). [3] The title is a reference to the refrain of the poem "A Smuggler's Song" by Rudyard Kipling. [4]
Bill and Petronilla are a young couple on a yachting holiday. They agree to give a lift to friendly Tony and his cargo, who unbeknownst to them is a brandy smuggler. Before they know it, the couple are fleeing cross-country, chased by customs men. [5]
Allmovie called it "wafer-thin comedy"; [6] and The New York Times called it "a mild but tasty distillate." [7] Picture Show magazine found it "well acted against a delightful background of English scenery, beautifully photographed", and the film's executive producer John Grierson described it as "a sweet lemon of a picture" with a feel of "old oak and seaweed". [8]
The Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn is the smuggler hero of a series of novels by Russell Thorndike. The first book, Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh was published in 1915. The story idea came from smuggling in the 18th-century Romney Marsh, where brandy and tobacco were brought in at night by boat from France to avoid the tax. Minor battles were fought, sometimes at night, between gangs of smugglers, such as the Hawkhurst Gang, and the Revenue, supported by the army and local militias in the South, Kent and the West, Sussex.
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