Paradisio

I saw this film about three years ago, late at night after a session at the pub, so my perceptions at the time, and my recollections now, might not be exactly razor sharp. I have to say, though, that I found it strangely compelling. Arthur Howard, the much put-upon Pettigrew in the "Whack-O" TV series (which also starred the dark genius of 50s/60s British comedy, Jimmy Edwards), is in "Paradisio" a similarly likeable, self-effacing individual this time thrust bemusedly into the role of Everyman in the midst of Cold War intrigue. Michael Coy is quite right to point out the fascination of its Continental location footage, which reminds us how recent an event WW2 was at the time. The sparseness of dialogue rather contributes to the film's "ambient" quality, and the almost dream-like visual texture gently seduces the eye.

"Hurrah for buxom babes!" I say, the taste of most of us men even today, I would aver. It's probably true to say that films like "Paradisio" serve as useful benchmarks for the gradual post-war shift in sexual attitudes from repression to frankness. Seen from our perspective, as Michael Coy hints, "Paradisio" seems laughably inhibited and prim (rather like Arthur Howard himself, or at any rate his on-screen persona), but today's unflinching treatment of sexuality would not have been possible without such earlier, less candid treatments. I'd gladly watch it a second time.