Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) Reviews

• I'd rather have him than the bottom smacker at the co-op!.

  Spikeopath2008-09-13

  Marjorie Clark is a very pretty girl from a hard working family, she doesn't ask for much in life. Yet after what seemed to be a pointless beauty pageant she is transported into the realm of stardom, a sequence of events that brings wealth, respect, and the unwritten pitfalls of fame............ If i'm totally honest here, then the only reason i came across this film was because at this moment in time i'm on a mission to see any film that has the names of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat attached to it. I saw that Dennis Price, Sid James, George Cole, Diana Dors, Stanley Holloway and Alistair Sim were in the cast list, British institutions one and all, yet still i had low expectations with it. I had never heard of it before, my parents are both staunch British cinema fans, they have surely never put this one my way, it's rated just above five right here on IMDb, yep, i certainly wasn't expecting much. Perhaps that is why i enjoyed it so much?, i mean don't get me wrong here, it's not one i will go back and revisit, but the performance of Pauline Stroud as Marjorie Clark and the dark undertones of the plot make this something of a must see piece. The perils and the highs and lows of a pretty girl with stars in her eyes, has rarely been so poignant as it is here, the film has some splendid comedy moments, and also has a lovely little romantic core, but chiefly it's the downturn of events that is the scripts crowning moment. I would wager that IMDb tagging this as a genre comedy only is a big error, but cest la vie, they own the site, and i'm but a mere user!. Fans of Alistair Sim and Sid James should note that their parts in the film are pretty thin, so seeking this out for those actors will leave you feeling pretty flat, but hopefully, there may be something i have written that will pique your interest when you are stuck for an intelligent comedy/drama from the Great part of Britain. 7/10 Footnote:There is some wonderful, and quite creepy trivia attached to the film, if that has you intrigued then i point you to the user comment for this film written by Jeremy Beadle!!!, it's not hard to find since at this moment in time there be only four of us who have bothered to write a comment for the film!!.

• Austerity is Nearly Over!

  robinakaaly2010-03-19

  This was a hugely enjoyable film for those of us who were around when it was made. Even sixty years on I can still remember Battersea Funfair. What I do wonder though, is how many in a modern audience will get all the topical jokes, a few for instance: the reference to Johnny being a butter patter: in those days Sainsbury's cut butter from a block, and patted it with wooden patters to the required weight; in the cinema Johnny buys a brickette ice-cream (without wafers); the 10/- fine if a half-naked girl moved during a tableau (Lord Chamberlain's rules - see Mrs Henderson Presents). Among the nice touches: Alistair Sim's cameo as Hawtry Murington was quite brilliant from the opening, louring, shot of him to his accurate critique of the problems facing the British film industry; as Marjorie goes into see Otto Mann, casting director, a couch is just inside the door. Although set in the North, the exterior shot of Chanters store is of Bentalls in Kingston. The station with the train back home is Kings Cross (the coaches are Eastern Region). And was the pawnbroker an uncredited Bernard Miles? Oh, and wasn't the 20 year old Diana Dors a dish? (And can somebody identify Joan Collins for me please). The whole thing was a delight from start to finish (despite the lack of regional accents among the girls).

• Trivia

  jjagb2005-10-31

  It may interest people to know that appearing in the film uncredited as a contestant in a beauty contest is Ruth Ellis. On July 13th 1955 she became the last woman hanged for murder in Great Britain. In a jealous rage the 28 year old night-club manageress fired six shots at her 24 year old lover David Blakely outside the Magdala Pub in Hampstead, London. Two bullets missed, one piercing the hand of a passer-by; two hit him in the back, one in the thigh and one in the left arm. He died instantly. When sentenced to death the only thing she said was 'Thanks'. The female star of the film was Diana Dors. Her greatest ever screen performance was in 'Yeild to the Night' the harrowing story of murderess Mary Price Hilton a character based on Ruth Ellis. Consultant on the film was executioner Albert Pierrepoint - the man who hanged Ruth Ellis.

• Unexpected

  thecatsmotheruk2003-12-21

  *possible spoilers I remember watching this with my parents one evening when I was bored. I must confess I do have a soft spot for these bland British films of the fifties with their incestuous casts and inoffensive plots. However this film is actually surprisingly dark. Our heroine is offered the part of Lady Godiva in a city pagent (though chastely dressed), is spotted by a beauty queen scout and she doesn't look back. However the beauty contest is fixed - she only wins because she has swapped costumes with another girl and the judges were told to pick the girl wearing it... Having been picked up by showbiz she is promptly dropped and eventually - no one wanting to employ a washed up model in the dramatic world - she is cast in a french review, as a nude, probably the equivalent of a porn film today. Rescue comes in the shape of her family and an Australian who takes her to Oz, weds her and they live happily - though she is a little battle scarred. It has the appearence of a typical bland film of the era, but it does contain hidden depth. The old story of a girl being abandoned by the showbiz that courted her is timeless. A remake might be in order to give it a wider audience.

• A dud, but worth it for Alastair Sim's brilliant cameo.

  rick_72010-06-11

  Lady Godiva Rides Again (Frank Launder, 1951) is a disappointing comedy from the Launder-Gilliat team responsible for penning The Lady Vanishes and Millions Like Us. Pauline Stroud is naivety itself as a competition winner who crashes the big time and finds the showbiz world is a tad unpleasant. Her Ruby Keeler-esquire performance fuses big-eyed posturing with nauseating delivery to no visible end, as her character leaves behind good guy George Cole to rub shoulders with film star Simon Abott (Dennis Price at his most foppish) on the slippery slope to Sid James' dodgy "French revue". But at least pineapple salesman John McCallum hasn't deserted her. Launder and Gilliat aren't sure whether they're dishing up a comic romp or a cautionary tale and the result is a largely laughless, frequently miserable, ultimately patronising film. On the plus side, there is one atypically fantastic scene around the hour mark featuring Alastair Sim as a broken-down producer, formerly "the Mr Murington", now "THAT Mr Murington". Marrying pathos and belly laughs, it's one of the most perfectly rounded sequences I've seen and presumably provided the template for Peter Sellers' pathetic, hilarious scene-stealing bit as The Wrong Box's Dr Pratt. It's also fun to see Richard Wattis, Sim's Happiest Days of Your Life co-star, putting in a couple of minutes as the sardonic Otto Mann, while the pneumatic Diana Dors has a showy bit-part as a bikini-clad model. Elsewhere, the casting is bizarre, both wilfully so and in retrospect. As well as featuring Googie Withers in its film-within-a-film and boasting a walk-on from Trevor Howard, it offers a first glimpse at Joan Collins, gives future DJ Jimmy Young a chance to croon and presents Ruth Ellis - later notorious as the last woman to be hanged in Britain - as a beauty contestant. Such pub trivia aside, Lady Godiva is a bit of a damp squib, cantering completely off the road in the final reels as the makers strive for some sort of grand neorealist statement, and find only Sid James. Trivia note: Dors played a character based on Ruth Ellis in Yield to the Night, though Ellis wouldn't get a real biopic until Dance With a Stranger in 1985, starring Miranda Richardson.