A Yank in Ermine

A Yank In Ermine tells of the story of an enlisted American Airman who gets a visit from British solicitor Reginald Beckwith who tells him that he's about to inherit a title and estate because a whole lot of relatives he never knew he had have taken leave of this earth. He's got himself a nice bit of acreage in England with servants and all.

Of course if he decides the lifestyle isn't for him he can abdicate. But Peter Thompson decides to go to the United Kingdom and check it out. Accompanying area a pair of friends Harold Lloyd, Jr., and Jon Pertwee.

There are some women involved. A nightclub singer back home played by Diana Decker and Noelle Middleton who is the heiress to a neighboring estate. The usual romantic complications ensue.

This might have been a bigger hit, but Peter Thompson was just too bland in the lead. I daresay this probably got limited distribution on this side of the pond.

Another reviewer said Jon Pertwee had an atrocious American accent. That he did, but I think it was quite deliberate. Pertwee was having some fun with the part spoofing what some Americans sound like to British ears. I enjoyed him and Harold Lloyd, Jr. at the local dance where Pertwee cuts one mean rug in slang of the day.

A Yank In Ermine still an entertaining film after over 60 years.

The premise is just to get a supposedly 'box-office' American or two into a film to get the finance. An American in uniform inherits a village. Lots of raucous 'jazz' music drowns any sort of emotional empathy, along with a woman who 'dances' in gold lamé, wearing what appear to be a pair of marigold washing-up gloves. It deteriorates from then on, with the likes of Wattis, Pertwee and Beckwith playing English characters, Sid James playing the Afrikaaner version of a comic and a whole string of Ealing studio clichés. Puts bums on seats- in the pub next door! The polo game with the brightly coloured balls, the Rolls that would have been ancient even then and the chauffeur in a luminous scarlet uniform seem to be quintessentially English to the directors of this mash-up. The straight actors seem to be delivering the lame script with sincerity, but I'm guessing they didn't carry clips from this time waster in their casting portfolios.

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'

Just a nice bit of Sunday afternoon film fun, as it's easy watching and listening with attractive leads and amusing co-stars. Nothing taxing on the brain so let it just wash over you!

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.