But while the film has good things about it, it's a bit all over the shop. The adventures of a bike club feel like it should be a kids film, and at times the movie has that vibe (there's a plot about a stolen bike racket), but it's also got these thirty something actors like McCallum and Patrick Holt chasing after Honor Blackman - their parts feel written for younger actors.
The whole movie McCallum is chasing Blackman, she seems into him... then at the end he introduces her to his parents, they're a bit cool, so the next scene he's passing her over to Holt. It's very unsatisfactory especially as Holt seems like such a drip - she's too good for him. (This scene felt like it was added after previews or something but who would be satisfied by it? They should have just made Holt the villain - the film lacks a villain in the final bike race.)
At times you get the sense the filmmakers were going for a Holiday Camp style multi-storyline movie (there's a subplot about an escaped criminal living in the community, and about a kid who was orphaned in the war and has gone off the rails) - which in hindsight is the way they should have gone once they decided to cast it with adults.
More and more I'm coming to feel that Sydney Box wasn't a very good executive for Gainsborough. He had good ideas and instincts but seemed to lack a simple overall vision for his films.
Another strong effort from Dors, a screen natural, as the pretty, chubby thing with a twinkle in her eye and a determination to flirt with men. Really the movie should have given her more to do - a rival for Blackman, say. Blackman is solid but hadn't grown into her looks yet.
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