Saturday, May 24, 2025

Movie review - "Mad About Men" (1954) **

 Sequel to Miranda isn't as good although from the team of Ralph Thomas and Betty Box and with Glynis Johns and Margaret Rutherford reprising their roles, plus colour.

This had tremendous potential. The idea is very good: Miranda, the mermaid, decides to swap places with a lookalike distant cousin, then sees a photo of said cousin's fiancee and decides her relative can do better and goes around seducing men.

But the story is wonky. Miranda needed to focus on Donald Sinden, who is a rich fisherman (playing it in leading man mode, serious and dreamy, with dyed blonde hair)... he should have had Anne Crawford as fiancee. Also she needed to genuinely love someone. There's nothing at stake. There needed to be more differences between the two Johns' characters - the landlubber needed to be more of a presence. Miranda needed to love Sinden, who needed a fiancee to wreck things.  Get Miranda's friends out of the water.  Use the dull Johns character more.

This film could've been good. It's not.  It's also hollow because Miranda pretends to be her cousin to get the guy but he falls for Miranda, right? So he's not with the girl he thinks he's with?

These Rank movies of the 1950s were so frustrating. This one especially because it's a rare film driven by a woman.

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