An unsophisticated and impressionable young girl finds herself in trouble after winning a beauty pageant.An unsophisticated and impressionable young girl finds herself in trouble after winning a beauty pageant.An unsophisticated and impressionable young girl finds herself in trouble after winning a beauty pageant.
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Eddie Leslie
- Comic
- (as Eddy Leslie)
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It is difficult to believe that with the talent both behind and in front of the camera that this film could be such a misfire.It clearly attempts to be a satire on beauty competitions and the film industry,but misses just about every target that it aims at.As one other reviewer has mentioned she is reminiscent of Ruby Keeler ie talentless.She is just totally out of her depth.Dennis Price is the nominal star of this film,but echoing is spiraling down career he only appears for about 20 minutes.He just had to appear in what ever he was offered he was desperately short of money.However there are 2 standout female performances both which show star potential.Diana Dors is great as usual and playing a sister of Proudfoot is the great Kay Kendall.just a couple of years away from stardom in Genevieve.
Made in the year of the Festival of Britain, this film is prefaced by a warning that it "Contains mild innuendo, cultural depictions of the era".
Pauline Stroud has long served as one the great warnings to aspiring actresses since she vanished almost without trace after playing the title role in this film, but actually aquits herself well and shows considerable cow-eyed charm.
Diana Dors as a hardened pro is supposed to be the film's glamour girl, but compared to the lovely Kay Kendal - wasted in a small part - she comes a very poor third; while harsh reality intrudes in the form of a predatory Dennis Price and Eddie Byrne's observation that life in austerity Britain for most girls consists of "seven years to live and then the kitchen sink."
Pauline Stroud has long served as one the great warnings to aspiring actresses since she vanished almost without trace after playing the title role in this film, but actually aquits herself well and shows considerable cow-eyed charm.
Diana Dors as a hardened pro is supposed to be the film's glamour girl, but compared to the lovely Kay Kendal - wasted in a small part - she comes a very poor third; while harsh reality intrudes in the form of a predatory Dennis Price and Eddie Byrne's observation that life in austerity Britain for most girls consists of "seven years to live and then the kitchen sink."
The movie industry turns out one of those "It's not easy in the moom pitcher business" movies every few years, like A STAR IS BORN, and this Launder-Gilliat production, made during the slide of the 1950s is their contribution to the field. Pauline Stroud is hectored into taking part into a local beauty pageant. This leads to a glamour competition, which she wins, when Diana Dors doesn't want to take time out from her more profitable life to accept the prize of a 3-month studio contract. Miss Stroud thinks she is on the road to stardom.... but the industry is full of chiselers and ineffectual nice guys down on their luck, while she is too mousy and moral to do more than flounder and sink.
There are plenty of interesting players, from Dennis Price and Miss Dors, to surprising unbilled cameos like Alastair Sim and Googie Withers; the beauty contestants are starlets who would become prominent over the next couple of decades, like Kay Kendall and Joan Collins. It's the dourest of comedies that could manage a general release, while never releasing its hold on the audience's attention.
There are plenty of interesting players, from Dennis Price and Miss Dors, to surprising unbilled cameos like Alastair Sim and Googie Withers; the beauty contestants are starlets who would become prominent over the next couple of decades, like Kay Kendall and Joan Collins. It's the dourest of comedies that could manage a general release, while never releasing its hold on the audience's attention.
Alastair Sim, Diana Dors, Stanley Holloway, Dennis Price, George Cole and Sidney James in this Girl's Own story about a drippy young woman in the midlands chosen in a beauty pageant in Westbourne (Blackpool) to advertise soap.
All the actors play their respective characters, Diana Dors as a bad girl in the pageant, Stanley Holloway as the avuncular father, Dennis Price as a philandering film star, George Cole as a ingenuous working class piker, and Sidney James as a dodgy geezer running a strip show.
But it doesn't really save the contrived and well worn plot.
Pauline Stroud the star of Lady Godiva Rides Again had a respectable career. But
a lot of very familiar folks are down the cast list of this film
In Lady Godiva Strikes Again, Stroud a working class girl from the midlands who on a lark enters a beauty contest and wins. She gets to ride as Lady Godiva did through the streets of Coventry, but this could also mean a career in the British cinema.
Her father Stanley Holloway playing a role as dad that Eugene Pallette would have done in America is real skeptical about this. So's her working class boyfriend George Cole, nice guy but a bit of a lout. No reason she shouldn't reach for the stars.
Dennis Price is the nominal star of this film, but he's got a limited amount of screen time. He plays a supercilious screen star, a whole lot like the part he did in Kind Hearts And Coronets. An arranged studio date with Stroud turns out to be a disaster all around with the paparazzi getting a most indelicate picture of him.
Down the cast list though you will find British beauties Diana Dors and Joan Collins and Kay Kendall as contestants, Sidney James as a casting director and Alastair Sim as a milk drinking (ulcers) studio head. Even Trevor Howard who was a reigning star of the UK cinema has an unbilled walk on.
It all does work out in the end and Stroud's a wiser girl for it. Lady Godiva never had a ride like this though.
In Lady Godiva Strikes Again, Stroud a working class girl from the midlands who on a lark enters a beauty contest and wins. She gets to ride as Lady Godiva did through the streets of Coventry, but this could also mean a career in the British cinema.
Her father Stanley Holloway playing a role as dad that Eugene Pallette would have done in America is real skeptical about this. So's her working class boyfriend George Cole, nice guy but a bit of a lout. No reason she shouldn't reach for the stars.
Dennis Price is the nominal star of this film, but he's got a limited amount of screen time. He plays a supercilious screen star, a whole lot like the part he did in Kind Hearts And Coronets. An arranged studio date with Stroud turns out to be a disaster all around with the paparazzi getting a most indelicate picture of him.
Down the cast list though you will find British beauties Diana Dors and Joan Collins and Kay Kendall as contestants, Sidney James as a casting director and Alastair Sim as a milk drinking (ulcers) studio head. Even Trevor Howard who was a reigning star of the UK cinema has an unbilled walk on.
It all does work out in the end and Stroud's a wiser girl for it. Lady Godiva never had a ride like this though.
Did you know
- TriviaOne of the Beauty Queen contestants is a dark-haired Ruth Ellis, later to become infamous as the last woman hanged in Britain for murder and the subject of the movie Dance with a Stranger (1985).
- GoofsWhen Mrs. Clark complains about serving customers, while leaving her ironing, a shadow of the boom microphone is visible at the top of screen.
- Quotes
Hawtrey Murington - Optimum Films: The casting director is no longer with us. Murington alone remains, and he faces you.
Marjorie Clark: You mean you're "the" Mr. Murington?
Hawtrey Murington - Optimum Films: No longer "the" - - "that."
- ConnectionsFeatured in Those British Faces: A Tribute to Stanley Holloway 1890-1982 (1993)
- SoundtracksHow Long Is Always?
Written by Leo Towers and Frankie Russell
- How long is Bikini Baby?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Maxie macht Karriere
- Filming locations
- The Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone, Kent, England, UK(setting of the Fascination Soap beauty pageant.)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 1h 38m(98 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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