Happy Is the Bride

If you like gentle comedies set in an idealised home counties village peopled by well-spoken, elegant, middle-class people played by cinema stalwarts of the 50s and 60s as I do, then this film ought to be a winner. However, it falls unaccountably flat and is decidedly unfunny. When even Cecil Parker fails to raise a laugh, there is something seriously wrong.

I watched it recently for the first time in many many years and, although I knew it was inferior to the 1941 original Quiet Wedding, had convinced myself that it wasn't that bad and benefitted from modern techniques and the likes of Parker, Carmichael, Grenfell, and Barker but they all seem to be on valium while Athene Seyler comes across as just vile.

A major drawback of course is that Miss Scott is simply not in the same league as the beautiful and bewitching Margaret Lockwood but this doesn't explain the other failings.

A classic tale of the almost inevitable failure of remakes and sequels, though even this isn't as horrendous as Quiet Weekend.

I will just have to keep hoping that a copy of the 1941 version re-surfaces ( I don't really undestand why it seems to have disappeared and hasn't even been on Talking Pictures as far as I recall).