Ladies Who Do

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Ladies Who Do
Ladies Who Do.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by C. M. Pennington-Richards
Written by Michael Pertwee
John Bignall
Produced by George H. Brown
Jan Darnley-Smith
Starring Peggy Mount
Robert Morley
Harry H. Corbett
Dandy Nichols
Cinematography Geoffrey Faithfull
Edited by Oswald Hafenrichter
Music by Ron Goodwin
Production
companies
Bryanston Films
Fanfare Films
Distributed by British Lion Films
Release dates
  • 16 January 1964 (1964-01-16)(London)
  • November 25, 1963 (1963-11-25)(NYC)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£134,666 [1] or £116,997 [2]

Ladies Who Do is a 1963 British comedy film directed by C. M. Pennington-Richards and starring Peggy Mount, Robert Morley and Harry H. Corbett. [3] It was written by Michael Pertwee and John Bignall.

Contents

Plot

Mrs. Cragg works as a charwoman for retired Colonel Whitforth and as a cleaner at an office block in London. It is whilst doing her office cleaning that she retrieves a cigar discarded by financier James Ryder as a gift for the Colonel, wrapping it in a scrap of paper. The Colonel discovers that the scrap of paper is actually a telegram containing details about a City takeover bid that has fallen through. He unscrupulously uses this insider information to make £5,000 on the stock exchange, which he offers to share equally with Mrs. Cragg.

Though she does not understand what has happened, she is convinced that he has done something wrong, so she goes to inform Ryder. However, before she can, she hears him on the telephone talking about his plan to demolish Pitt Street, evicting her and all her friends, so he can erect an office building. She argues with him, to no avail. He tells her, "If you want anything, you've got to go out and get it ... so long as it's legal." She takes his advice to heart.

Determined to foil Ryder's plan, she recruits three of her friends and neighbours in Pitt Street, fellow 'chars' who clean the offices of other noted financiers, to gather information. They form the company "Ladezudu Ltd" ("Ladies Who Do"), a speculation syndicate headed by Whitforth. All goes well until they invest all of their capital, now £60,000, in an Irish pig producer, only to lose everything when an outbreak of swine fever kills the stock.

Meanwhile, Ryder and his partner Sydney Tait offer the residents of Pitt Street £100 each if they agree to move within a month, with very little success. Ryder desperately needs the office building project to succeed, otherwise he will be wiped out. Aware of Ryder's precarious finances, Tait dissolves their partnership. However, having lost everything, the ladies are unable to put up a fight when Ryder brings his demolition crew in. Then the Colonel brings news: when the pigs were buried, valuable "deposits" were discovered, meaning Ladezudu will recoup much more than their investment. Heartened, Mrs. Cragg organises stiff resistance, which convinces Ryder's investor Strang to withdraw from the project. The Colonel invites Ryder to his office to discuss selling out. There he meets the board of directors, the four charwomen, and realises how they obtained their information. The Colonel invites him to lunch to discuss Ryder joining the board. After they all leave, an unknown man enters the room and starts going through their waste paper.

Cast

Production

The film was shot at Twickenham Studios and on location around London.

Critical reception

Kinematograph Weekly called the film a "money maker" at the British box office for 1964. [4]

Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Unusually slow in getting started, this back-street and big-business farce is only intermittently amusing, and then only mildly. A basically promising idea is not exploited to good comedy advantage until the last twenty minutes or so, when the film boils into acceptable farce. The 'ladies' of the title are dominated by Peggy Mount and Miriam Karlin; Avril Elgar and Dandy Nichols are relegated to subsidiary roles in which they can shine only at moments." [5]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "A firm favourite in such TV series as The Larkins and George and the Dragon, Peggy Mount found films harder to come by. In the sixth of her ten pictures, she's joined by those other sitcom stalwarts Miriam Karlin and Dandy Nichols, as a trio of charladies who make a killing on the stock market through the tips they find among the office rubbish. With Harry H Corbett in support, this should have been quite amusing, but the ponderous script and the flat direction make it a one-joke bore. " [6]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Mild farce sustained by familiar actors." [7]

Home media

Ladies Who Do was released on DVD in the UK on 24 March 2008.[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. ↑ Petrie, Duncan James (2017). "Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution" (PDF). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: 7. ISSN   1465-3451.
  2. ↑ Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 219.
  3. ↑ "Ladies Who Do". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  4. ↑ Altria, Bill (17 December 1964). "British Films Romp Home - Fill First Five Places". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 9.
  5. ↑ "Ladies Who Do". Monthly Film Bulletin . 31 (360): 26. 1964 – via ProQuest.
  6. ↑ Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 518. ISBN   9780992936440.
  7. ↑ Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 570. ISBN   0586088946.
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