Miss MacTaggart Won't Lie Down

I enjoyed this short and is was indeed possible to walk up to the front door of 10 Downing Street as I did about 1973, there were no barriers back then. A charming wee Scottish film shown on TPTV in the UK where many older and unusual films can be found but which are probably of little interest to anyone under the age of 50 or so.

Watch this to see a slice of Scottish life which in some small villages it has probably not changed much since 1966, except that there are a lot more cars about of course.

She became a one woman crime wave to get what she wanted. Not the best of endings but we can presume that it was a happy one.

Francis Searle's first film in colour reflects the struggle to disinter the buried union card in the same year's 'Death of a Bureaucrat'.

Because exaggerated reports of her death mean she can no longer withdraw money from her local post office, Jeannie MacPherson is forced to prove she's still alive by committing antisocial acts like breaking windows, playing bagpipes in the small hours and planting an unexploded haggis under the Houses of Parliament in this gentle satire on bureaucracy reminiscent of the refusal of the rest of the company in 'Catch-22' to accept that Doc Daneeka isn't dead despite his protestations to the contrary.

When Jeannie MacTaggart returns to her home village after a short break to Glasgow. The locals are shocked and think they are seeing a ghost.

They believed that Jeannie MacTaggart had died. They even attended her funeral. It turns out it was her unbeknownst twin sister who collapsed and died while visiting her.

Now that Jeannie MacTaggart has been officially declared dead. She ceases to exist. No small minded official wants to help her.

So she launches a campaign of petty crime and harassment to come back to life. After all if she is legally dead, she cannot be arrested. (Maybe Miss MacTaggart should had taken her late sister's identity!)

Miss MacTaggart Won't Lie Down is an independent short, styled like an Ealing type farce. It makes pointed comments on sleepy small village officialdom.

The type that made a mistake, quickly got Miss MacTaggart wrongly declared dead. Stopped her bank account but would not lift a finger to rectify the situation.

Not even contact the Scottish Secretary or the Home Office to help out Miss MacTaggart.

It ends with an official telling Miss MacTaggart to contact an Ombudsman. A Scandinavian thing. Back in the 1960s, going to an Ombudsman was a rare thing. Now we have all types of Ombudsmen.

Barbara Mullen gets the opportunity to star in this amusing short.Interesting to see how easy it was to access Parliament,and that a bomb hoax was treated in such a comical way.

Jeannie MacTaggart returns home from a visit to Glasgow to discover that everyone thinks she's a ghost, turns out her sister died at her home, and was falsely identified as Jeannie. Jeannie discovers that being declared dead has major problems.

One of the most curious, strangest things I've ever seen, how on Earth could such an innocent and sweet, old lady go on such an alarming crime spree. Her crimes escalate as her frustrations grow.

Plenty of gentle laughs from start to finish, I'm afraid my knowledgeable of the law isn't as good as it should be, so I'm not sure whether the troublesome law was actually in place or not, it seems so curious.

Barbara Mullen is an absolute delight as Jeannie, what a lovely, sweet actress, you can only imagine the poor lady's frustrations.

Lovely.

7/10.