The Perfect Woman | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bernard Knowles |
Written by | George Black Bernard Knowles add. dialogue Basil Boothroyd |
Based on | play by Wallace Geoffrey Basil Mitchell |
Produced by | Alfred Black George Black |
Starring | Patricia Roc Stanley Holloway Nigel Patrick Miles Malleson |
Cinematography | Jack Hildyard |
Edited by | Peter Graham Scott |
Music by | Arthur Wilkinson |
Production company | |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors (UK) Eagle Lion (UK) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £100,000 [1] |
The Perfect Woman is a 1949 British farce comedy film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Patricia Roc, Stanley Holloway and Nigel Patrick. [2] It was written by George Black Jr, Knowles and J. B. Boothroyd, based on the play by Wallace Geoffrey and Basil Mitchell. The screenplay concerns a scientist who creates a robotic woman.
Roger Cavendish is informed by his butler Ramshead that he is broke. They find an advertisement in The Times placed by Professor Ernest Belman, seeking help. They phone and arrange to meet. The professor has created a female robot, Olga, based on his niece, Penelope. Cavendish and Ramshead are tasked with looking after the robot for a week but are told they must never say the word "love" in front of it.
When Penelope's date cancels, the housekeeper Buttercup suggests she pretend to be the robot. Cavendish and Ramshead take her to a hotel and stay in the bridal suite, sparking many rumours amongst the staff. Cavendish's rich aunt arrives and thinks he has married. The robot is sent to help to explain things.
The original play debuted on 11 September 1948 and ran for 224 performances. [3]
Roc was under contract to J. Arthur Rank at the time [4] but left the organisation before the film was released. Filming took place in January 1949. The film was shot in 38 days at only three-quarters of its budgeted cost. [5] It was made at Denham Studios with sets designed by James Elder Wills.
Pamela Devis was cast as the robot because of her resemblance to Roc. [6]
Two Cities' executive producer Earl St John hoped to reunite Holloway, Patrick and Roc for a sequel, The Perfect Man. [7] However no film resulted.
The film was released on a double bill, and given a West End screening. [8] It proved popular and made a profit. [1]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "From beginning to end this film never falters, moving from one amusing situation to another with amazing rapidity, and provides first-class light entertainment. It is exceedingly well produced and directed, maintaining an even pace throughout; the dialogue is witty, the background music appropriate, and the whole is a superb piece of nonsensical fun. Nigel Patrick as Roger Cavendish is a very natural comedian, while Stanley Holloway makes a good stooge. Miles Malleson portrays the rather lovable but very absent-minded Professor Belmon, and Patricia Roc as Penelope, together with Irene Handl, Fred Berger, David Hurst and the remainder of the cast add their share to the hilarity of the film." [9]
Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture is a little stagey in design, but the zest with which it is put over by the featured players and the accurate timing enable it to expand beyond the proscenium arch and smother its exuberant clichés with spontaneous laughs. Naughty but quite nice and agreeably staged, it would only dawn on the Censor to give it an "A." Thematically, it has been doing the rounds for years with never a smirk. In fact, its healthy tradition is one of its strongest recommendations." [10]
Picture Show wrote: "Its obvious theatricalities are cloaked by the joyful gusto with which it is acted." [11]
The BBC broadcast a live adaptation of the Geoffrey and Mitchell play in the Sunday Night Theatre slot on 6 May 1956. [12]
Stanley Augustus Holloway was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady. He was also renowned for his comic monologues and songs, which he performed and recorded throughout most of his 70-year career.
William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, particularly remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the hypochondriac and fee-hungry local doctor. Malleson was also a writer on many films, including some of those in which he had small parts, such as Nell Gwyn (1934) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940). He also translated and adapted several of Molière's plays.
Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill, known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey (1943) and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued her acting career for another 50 years.
Irene Handl was a British character actress who appeared in more than 100 British films; she also wrote novels.
Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman was an English actor and stage director born into a theatrical family.
Anthony Maitland Steel was a British actor and singer who appeared in British war films of the 1950s such as The Wooden Horse (1950) and Where No Vultures Fly (1951). He was also known for his tumultuous marriage to Anita Ekberg.
Madonna of the Seven Moons is a 1945 British drama film starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. Directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures, the film was produced by Rubeigh James Minney, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas of the mid-1940s popular with WW2-era female audiences.
Patricia Roc was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage (1946). She also appeared in Millions Like Us (1943), Jassy (1945), The Brothers (1947) and When the Bough Breaks (1947).
The Brothers is a 1947 British film melodrama directed by David MacDonald and starring Patricia Roc, Will Fyffe and Maxwell Reed. It was adapted from the novel of the same title by L. A. G. Strong.
David MacDonald was a Scottish film director, writer and producer.
When the Bough Breaks is a 1947 film directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring Patricia Roc and Rosamund John. It is an adaptation of an original storyline by Herbert Victor on adoption and the competing ties of one child's birth and foster family.
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 that conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films that had similar themes that were usually developed by the same film crew and frequently recurring actors who played similar characters in each. They were mostly based on popular books by female novelists and they encompassed costume dramas, such as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945), and modern-dress dramas, such as Love Story (1944) and They Were Sisters (1945). The popularity of the films with audiences peaked mid-1940s when cinema audiences consisted primarily of women. The influence of the films led to other British producers releasing similarly themed works, such as The Seventh Veil (1945), Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), Hungry Hill (1947), The White Unicorn (1947), Idol of Paris (1948), and The Reluctant Widow (1950) and often with the talent that made Gainsborough melodramas successful.
A French Mistress is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Cecil Parker, James Robertson Justice, Agnès Laurent, Ian Bannen, Raymond Huntley, Irene Handl and Thorley Walters.
Code of Scotland Yard is a 1947 British crime film directed by George King and starring Oskar Homolka, Muriel Pavlow and Derek Farr. It was originally released as The Shop at Sly Corner, being based on the popular stage play of that title by Edward Percy.
Diamond City is a 1949 British drama film directed by David MacDonald and starring David Farrar, Honor Blackman, Diana Dors and Niall MacGinnis. The screenplay was by Roland Pertwee based on the story "Digger's Republic" by Roger Bray.
Doctor in Love is a 1960 British comedy film, the fourth of the seven films in the Doctor series, directed by Ralph Thomas and starring James Robertson Justice and Michael Craig. It was the first film in the series not to feature Dirk Bogarde, although he did return for the next film in the series Doctor in Distress. It was loosely based on the 1957 novel of the same title by Richard Gordon.
Cardboard Cavalier is a 1948 British historical comedy film directed by Walter Forde and starring Sid Field, Margaret Lockwood and Jerry Desmonde.
Woman Hater is a 1948 British romantic comedy film directed by Terence Young and starring Stewart Granger, Edwige Feuillère and Ronald Squire. The screenplay concerns Lord Datchett, who, as a consequence of a bet with his friends, invites a French film star to stay at his house but pretends to be one of his employees while he tries to romance her with the help of his butler. When she discovers his subterfuge, she decides to turn the tables on him.
One Night with You is a 1948 British musical comedy film directed by Terence Young and starring Nino Martini, Patricia Roc and Bonar Colleano.
Mrs. Pym of Scotland Yard is a 1939 British comedy-drama film directed by Fred Elles starring Mary Clare in her only title role and Nigel Patrick in his film debut. It is based on the Mrs Pym novels by Nigel Morland, and written by Morland, who re-used the title for a 1946 book.