Highly Overrated But Still Good

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Peter Hayward (Richard Greene) leads the villagers in the town of Chaunduyt (pronounced "Condwit") against a landowner, Mr Pike (Alfred Drayton), who refuses to allow animals onto his land and wants to plough up the cricket pitch. Peter is helped by a ghost (Richard Bird) who has been released from the walls of a stately home after it has been hit by a German bomb. Hey, it might be a British bomb, after all, we now know that in every war it seems traditional to kill your own troops in some way. The film climaxes with a court scene and a surprise revelation.I was hoping for a good ghost story but it is far from that. Unfortunately, this is another example of British silliness. The ghost as played by Richard Bird is hardly in the film and when he does appear, he is portrayed as a friendly buffoon. Another buffoon who I suspect was meant to court sympathy was the "Butler" as portrayed by Edward Rigby. We have tedious sections at the beginning of the film where every time he moves around the stately home, he is accompanied by comedy music. I found him irritating. There are some funny touches, eg, the fact that everyone in the village has the same name due to inbreeding throughout the years (a hot topic especially with the royal family) and this film gives us the original dilemma over the pronunciation of the surname "Bucket"...... or is that "Bouquet"? If you like silly British nonsense, then you will enjoy this film. It's not a catastrophe but it is a disappointment.

This picture deserves more publicity. It is a charming British comedy with a great sense of goofiness that the Brits used to do so well.In it, our hero Richard Greene displays the wonderful charm we remember so well from his subsequent "Robin Hood" TV series. As the reluctant Lord (who secretly yearns for commoner vices), Brefni O'Rorke is delightfully wise, subtle, and droll. Even Ivor Barnard, in his brief cameo, is memorable as a French refugee bus driver. (Apparently, he apprenticed in a Parisian taxi.) And scattered throughout the film are many funny bits (such as rival lawyers continually attempting to one-up each other with earlier and more obscure citations.) Indeed, my only disappointment was over the ghost's role. More could have been done with him. Since sheep have a crucial role in the picture, for example, perhaps, as a sight gag, a ghostly encounter might have turned some black ones white. Also, the ghost's fate should somehow have been intertwined with that of the obnoxious plaintiff, who, after the trial, just seems to abruptly disappear, as if forgotten.

A pleasant and amusing but far from brilliant old British comedy, more often than not it is too silly for its own good, and some of the comedy bits are a bit awkward. The biggest problem with it all is however that the plot is tad too complex, in view of the light-hearted manner in which the material is treated. Still, the film certainly has its fair share of virtues. The cinematographer makes good use of lime lapse and zooming, plus the set design is interesting. Having Moore Marriott on hand is always a good thing too, even though this time he is not quite as delightful as usual. The special effects are okay for the time, and so is the overall quality of the picture. It is nothing really special, but it is quite satisfactory stuff.

For regular readers of Imdb, please read my comments of "They Met In The Dark (1944), the correct year, as to why I was attracted to this film starring Patricia Medina.If you read my other critiques you will soon notice that I am a great admirer of the actress Jennifer Jones (now long retired since "The Towering Inferno" (1974)); the obvious connection being that she made 4 films with Joseph Cotton who married our own Patricia Medina.Once again I came across another 1940s film in St.Albans town hall, (Hertfordshire) U.K., which had been hired for a video/book sale and which film I had never seen on UK tv.My theory is that modern tv companies are mostly in thrall to the teen & twenty market because of their high disposable income which attracts advertisers who effectivly finance most tv networks (except the dear old BBC of course) which means films such as this rarely get air time.Modern audiences are generally only interested in "the now" and not in films made in 1944, which even for me is 2 years before I was born.Funny that, because when I was 12 in 1958, I was attracted to Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers 1930s musicals but history is evidently in the genes of me my wife and son.Nevertheless I have continued to build up my video collection of classic 1940s films which you don't see on tv today and I often play them since despite the multiplicity of tv channels seen today, there is often so much transient rubbish on and even the old movie channels don't seem to have discovered some of the cracking films I have collected from this era.Well, that's the preamble.The present film was a Two Cities production made in 1944 produced by Sidney Box for General Film Distributors (a forerunner of the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) and directed by Jeffrey Dell.For someone like me who saw Richard Greene playing "Robin Hood" in the 1950s ATV childrens' tv serial, it was an added attraction to see Richard playing another role 10 years or so before he filmed this series.I remarked to my wife that the way he brilliantly organised the locals in defiance of the rich "baddy", must have weighed heavily on his c.v. when auditioning for his most famous tv role 10 years hence.If any readers have the book, "Laid Back In Hollywood", the 1998 biography by Patricia Medina, turn to page 24 and you will see a still from "Don't take It To Heart". Patricia does not say much about this film, only rather enigmatically that "...the title could have been giving a message to the audience or to us".Her humourous caption to the photograph below reads, "My parents assured me that there was no incest in our family - so why do I appear to be in love with my look alike?".They did marry for a while but evidently it was more like a brother/sister relationship and they had an amicable divorce before the great love of her life, years later - Joseph Cotton.In this film Patricia's famous vivid dark eyes are very evident.Again turn to page 59 of her biography to see a photograph which she describes as "painful" and which was published in an Italian newspaper the day after with the caption "Gli Occhi" - the eyes.I was relieved she lasted through to the end of the film.This is as much of the plot as I will state: An impecunious earl lives at his stately home " Chaunduyt Court" and disguises himself as a tour guide as he needs the tips left by tourists to live on.It is set during WWII in England and one day a German bomber drops a bomb which releases a 400 year old ghost ancestor of the earl.It also uncovers a manuscript which draws the attention of a young lawyer, Peter Hayward (Richard Greene).He is even more attracted to the photograph of the beautiful earl's daughter Mary, (Patricia Medina).Unfortunatly Mary is betrothed to one of the many "Buckets" who have inter-bred for centuries in the village.She has only met him once but he is now returning back from the war.Evidentally he does not meet the aspirations of Mary's snobby aunt.There is a lot of humour with this name "Bucket" as viewers of "Keeping Up Appearances" with Patricia Routledge will have seen, as to how this name is correctly pronounced.The ghost gives the right pronunciation!A local millionaire with no compassion is trying to block the villagers ancient right to graze their animals on his ground in defiance of common law precedent.Our hero, Peter, organizes an animal demonstration to pubicise the villagers' case.Eventually it comes to a court of law to determine the legal rights and the manuscript is the star exhibit for the defence as it gives clear rights of grazing on the land used for this purpose but now owned by the implacable millionaire.He hires a lawyer to debate ancient common law precendents and again Peter wins the argument going back to the Danish King, Ethelred The Unready!Where his case falls down is whether the 400 year old signature is genuine.It is here I will cease as a spoiler would ruin the fun for any reader who wants to track down this video.Mine is marketed by " British Classics Collection" (comedy).Any UK viewers of my generation who saw the early 1960s comedy tv series, "The Rag Trade" will smile when they see Esma Cannon doing her usual comic "daffy" act.This is a gentle comedy with a few twists and turns to keep you amused and interested.I rated it 7/10.