Bikini Baby

This was a hugely enjoyable film for those of us who were around when it was made. Even sixty years on I can still remember Battersea Funfair.

What I do wonder though, is how many in a modern audience will get all the topical jokes, a few for instance: the reference to Johnny being a butter patter: in those days Sainsbury's cut butter from a block, and patted it with wooden patters to the required weight; in the cinema Johnny buys a brickette ice-cream (without wafers); the 10/- fine if a half-naked girl moved during a tableau (Lord Chamberlain's rules - see Mrs Henderson Presents).

Among the nice touches: Alistair Sim's cameo as Hawtry Murington was quite brilliant from the opening, louring, shot of him to his accurate critique of the problems facing the British film industry; as Marjorie goes into see Otto Mann, casting director, a couch is just inside the door.

Although set in the North, the exterior shot of Chanters store is of Bentalls in Kingston. The station with the train back home is Kings Cross (the coaches are Eastern Region). And was the pawnbroker an uncredited Bernard Miles? Oh, and wasn't the 20 year old Diana Dors a dish? (And can somebody identify Joan Collins for me please).

The whole thing was a delight from start to finish (despite the lack of regional accents among the girls).

Irritated with her boyfriend "Johnny" (George Cole) for trying to tell her what she can and cannot do, an attractive young woman named "Marjorie Clark" (Pauline Stroud) joins a beauty contest as an act of defiance. Much to her surprise, she wins the title of "Lady Godiva" and gets to ride fully clothed in the local parade a little while later. She also gets the chance to compete in another, more serious, beauty contest soon afterward. Thanks in large part to the help of another beauty contestant named "Dolores August" (Diana Dors), she also manages to win that contest. Unfortunately, as she delves deeper into the glamour industry, she discovers that things aren't always as they seem, and reality quickly catches up to her. Now, instead of revealing more, I'll just say this was an interesting British comedy with a good plot and solid acting to support it. The problem, however, is that the humor wasn't nearly as sharp as it should have been, and for that reason, I have rated this movie accordingly.

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.

It may interest people to know that appearing in the film uncredited as a contestant in a beauty contest is Ruth Ellis.

On July 13th 1955 she became the last woman hanged for murder in Great Britain. In a jealous rage the 28 year old night-club manageress fired six shots at her 24 year old lover David Blakely outside the Magdala Pub in Hampstead, London. Two bullets missed, one piercing the hand of a passer-by; two hit him in the back, one in the thigh and one in the left arm. He died instantly.

When sentenced to death the only thing she said was 'Thanks'.

The female star of the film was Diana Dors. Her greatest ever screen performance was in 'Yeild to the Night' the harrowing story of murderess Mary Price Hilton a character based on Ruth Ellis.

Consultant on the film was executioner Albert Pierrepoint - the man who hanged Ruth Ellis.

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.