A comedy that Rank made to cash in on Ian Carmichael's box office success with Private's Progress but which was so disliked that it sat on the shelf for two years. It's pretty bad but many Rank comedies from this era were bad. I wonder what got up Jack Davis' goat?
Ian Carmichael writes in his memoirs that he disliked the script and tried to rewrite it at the eleventh hour with Bryan Forbes - that probably poisoned Davis' feelings. Maybe he was also offended by the fact the lead family were criminals. And possibly Belinda Lee was annoying him.
The movie has two concepts, both strong - Carmichael is the dopey son of a criminal family, and also he comes across some forged money and spends it to impress barmaid Belinda Lee. The two concepts could each sustain a movie but cancel each other out - it's not as exciting if a criminal finds forged cash. Surely it would have been better to have either the story be about a member of a criminal family who is trying to go straight, or an innocent who finds cast.
The movie drops the criminal family storyline which is a shame since actors like Kathleen Harrison and Jill Ireland are involved. It focuses on Carmichael spending money to impress Lee. The film can't seem to make up its mind about Lee either - she's got a sort of lower class accent (?) she is greedy for possessions but then... not. And she's meant to come to genuinely like Carmichael? Why? They would've been better off just having her greedy, and had Jill Ireland play a decent girl who loves him or something. I didn't believe Lee being into Carmichael for a second.
Lee is beautiful as always but seems bored. Original choice Diana Dors would've been better - though I don't blame her for turning down the movie.
It has colour. Robert Helpmann is fun as a crook. Another actor pretends to be an Aussie. Carmichael is annoying, especially with a pompadour hair cut.
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