Value for Money

This is a gentle comedy that meanders along in a fairly charming and harmless way. It isn't one of the best comedies of this period but it features a good cast, is nicely directed and is beautifully shot.

Gregson's accent is not that of a Batley (Barfield) resident but whether he could have managed it or not, the real thing might have been too much for most UK audiences leave alone those in the rest of the world.

The film portrays a few stereotypes; the Yorkshire folk who are pretty straightforward but 'careful' with money and those in London, many of whom are little better than two-faced thieves by comparison. They could easily have gone further, but they went far enough as it was. I found the interjections of Chaley's deceased father rather funny, but not that much else was any more than pleasantly amusing. The scenes in which Diana Dors (real name 'Fluck', which was understandably changed "should one of the bulbs go out when my name is in lights") appears in public and generates a major stir are probably quite realistic; at the time she was a star/sex symbol on the up (amongst other things there were 3-D nude photos of her published the previous year) and this film was one of five she did that was released in 1955.

If you like Britsh comedies of the period, have a local connection to Batley, or are a big Gregson or Dors fan, this should certainly be seen. For others it is still well worth viewing just for Unsworth's excellent photography and as something of a period piece.

Batley as it looked in the fifties got the film star treatment photographed in Technicolor & VistaVision by top cameraman Geoffrey Unsworth masquerading as the fictitious mill town of Barfield in this silly farce in which parsimonious northerner John Gregson inherits £62k from his old man (seen solely in pictures played by an uncredited Frederick Piper) and visits the fleshpots of London where we're treated to a breathtakingly vulgar and gaudy musical number before he falls for the voluptuous charms of hard and brassy Diana Dors.

Miss Dors (who at one point dives into a swimming pool in a bikini, plainly doubled for the dive itself, and emerging from the water her blonde mane still dry & set) demonstrates she sure knew how to spend money in those long-ago days when a seven-bedroom timbered house in the North of England cost a eye-watering £5,800.

A good "value for money" film demonstrating just how well the British (and even Yorkshire folk) can laugh at themselves. A good supporting cast headed up by Diana Dors who is irresistible to our hero Chayley from "oop north" and uses all her ample charms to help the poor lad to get value for his money. Unfortunately only a minor role for Leslie Philips in one of his earlier films.

This is a great classic film that just gets better and better all along the way. Diana Dors is in top form and John Gregson plays the part to all his full capacity. Take time out to catch this super movie.

Diana Dors was billed as the British Marilyn Monroe. A few years before her death I saw her opening an arcade in the Isle of Man. By that time she had ballooned in weight but she still could bring out the crowds. I was only a kid so did not really know what all the fuss was about.

In Value for Money, Dors plays glamourous singer and actress Ruthine West who gets enticed up to Batley to open a children's play area.

The cause for her relocation from chic London is Chayley Broadbent (John Gregson) who has inherited his father's textile fortune. Like his later father Chayley is a miser who watches the pennies. His long suffering fiancée Ethel, a local journalist wants Chayley to go to London to enjoy himself and find a purpose away from his father's penny pinching ways. He finds Ruthine in a show instead and instantly falls in love with her.

So Chayley, Ruthine and Ethel are in Batley. Ruthine hates the grim Yorkshire industrial town but likes Chayley's money. Ethel hangs around patiently for Chayley to come to his senses.

Value for Money is a colourful light romantic comedy, with a couple of nice musical numbers.

Chayley is a shallow fool who is always hearing his late father's muttering about not driving a hard enough bargain. It is a bit of froth and fun. Dors does look slim and sexy. It is a mildly entertaining movie with dated views on women.