The Reluctant Widow

The child of a once rich, now impoverished house, Jean Kent is on her way to become a governess when she is sort of kidnapped and wed to a dying man. After he does so, she comes to her new estate, filled with masterful men who mistreat her, French spies, and the odd smuggler or two trying to sell her duty-free booze. Her new cousin, Guy Rolfe, alternately makes love to her and despises her.

It is ridiculous, both in its over-the-top portrayal of its characters, its lack of any humor of any variety, and Miss Kent in particular, who seems to have mastered the art of fainting gracefully behind the ottoman at the moment when a more self-possessed leading lady -- Maureen O'Hara, say, or Gracie Fields -- might have done something more useful, like punching the man in the crotch, buying a cask of French brandy, or bursting into a rendition of "The Biggest Aspidistra in the World".

The Regency costumes look nice.

It's supposedly based on a Georgette Heyer novel. I am completely unfamiliar with Miss Heyer's works, but friends who have read them think highly of them, and Miss Heyer only permitted one more adaptation of a novel, a German movie of which no one has written an account. She wrote a clause into her will forbidding any adaptations, so I am willing to concede this probably was not a good one.