A Yank in Ermine

I've seen this film only once it was show on BBC2 one afternoon in the late 1990's. It's a story of an american soldier who inherits the lordship to an english village, Why it interested me is that the village in question is actually Turville in Buckinghamshire. Turville's usually linked to another film "Went the day well" but this film shows more shots of the village. The village pub "The Bull and Butcher" is shown in detail both inside and out. In the film the main bar is actually shown as the village shop, whether this was the case in 1955 or it was purely for film i am unsure. The film itself is quite boring and i would'nt recommend it for its artistic quality.

Eastman Colour (sic) has been lavished on this tinny comedy with a noisy score by Stanley Black in which stereotypes abound as three American goodwill ambassadors hit a sleepy English village as wintry as the welcome they receive.

The colour process was new then, hence the strange makeup some of the cast wear.

A Yank in Ermine is a passable low budget film made in colour. It is notable for having a couple of actors such as Jon Pertwee and Sidney James who appeared in the Carry On movies.

Peter Thompson is a solid American airman Joe Turner who is informed that he has inherited an Earldom, a seat in the House of Lords and a fortune of over £1 million.

Turner is unsure if he wants to give up his American citizenship and visits the UK to see if he likes the place. He brings along his two air force buddies. He leaves behind his fiance Gloria, a nightclub singer.

In the village which has his ancestral home. Turner and his friends are having difficulties adjusting to British life, the beer is warm and sports such as croquet is difficult to grasp. However Turner falls for the daughter of the neighbouring landowner but she too is engaged.

Pretty soon his friends thinking Turner might be homesick ask Gloria to pop over to Britain. Her arrival causes complications.

As a fish out of water comedy, this should had been a charming comedy with mismatched couples who eventually find true love. Unfortunately Thompson is bland, there is no spikiness in the writing and little comedy. It is left to the better known actors such as Wattis, Pertwee and James to make something out of the material.

Here we have that old chestnut as to how would an American act if he inherited an English title.I recall a rather better effort in the late thirties from HMM starring Robert Montgomery in Earl of Chicago.Here the beneficiary is a serviceman who comes to claim his title with two friends,Jon Pertwee,with a truly awful accent,and Harold Lloyd June,who sadly makes little impression.The real stars of this film are the supporting actors such as Guy Middleton,Reginald Beckwith and Richard WattisPeter Thompson plays the serviceman trying to get out of marrying Diana Decker so that he can marry Noelle Middleton.It is filmed in colour but it can't pep up a lifeless film.

They used to call these British movies 'Mid-Atlantic' as they thought they might attract American film-goers if they included a few has-been American actors. This type of movie eventually brought the UK film industry to its knees. The premise is so dull: a Yank comes to little old England with its quaint customs and people . Yawn yawn of course he gets to like it and finds true love. One awful bit is when the hero is supposedly riding a winning horse and he is so obviously in a studio set on some kind of rocking bench.

A brief cameo from Sid James. The village used is Turville Buckinghamshire and for once they used the real name of the pub the 'Bull and Butcher'