Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Movie review - "Josephine and Men" (1955) **

Silly British comedy - Glynis Johns is engaged to Donald Sinden then decides to marry his best friend, playwright Peter Finch. Then Sinden is accused of embezzling a lot of money and hides out with Johns. This is just dumb - why did they make it? I guess it's a kind of character study watching Johns be attracted to men who need her - but the censor was never going to allow them to have much fun.

Finch's comedy playing isn't too bad - he's a lot better than Simon and Laura and it's fun to hear his Aussie accent slip through. Johns' voice did get on my nerves and for someone who is meant to be the lead her character was passive a lot - Sinden does more in this film. Why didn't they have Johns drive the action? As a farce this is poorly structured. And why is Jack Buchanan in this film? You think he's going to do something but he never does.

It's bright and colourful and everyone tries but the Boulting brothers were out of their element with this one.

No comments: