Bachelor of Hearts

This is a quirky little movie with Hardy Kruger playing a young college graduate. Nice performance from Kruger in a sort of Brian Rix farce at the end when he is trying to entertain several girls - the reason why he is doing this escapes me at the moment. This is very much in the vain of the Ealing comedies - don't try to find the hidden depths there aren't any. Just go along with it and enjoy. Hardy Kruger is very popular with English audiences - he fits in well with our vision of the likeable German. Obviously his main claim to fame is the aircraft designer in "Flight of the Phoenix", but he has appeared in several war movies over the years.

This is a pleasant little film, jam-packed with amusing stereotypes of the English and university life as seen through the eyes of exchange student Wolf Hauser (very young and good-looking Kruger) If this movie had been made even 10 years later I wonder if there would have been a deeper exploration of Hauser's attempts to fit in with his surroundings and his very German presence in a still anti-German post-war England?

As it is, the movie is memorable for the glorious footage of Cambridge (undoubtedly one of the most photogenic places in England) and the lovely Sylvia Sims, who manages to sweetly steal every scene she appears in. She is very reminiscent of Kristen Scott Thomas at times, with her terribly english loveliness. Strong supporting cast including Ronald Lewis and Eric Barker help a lot.

Cute, harmless comedy when there's nothing better to do.

This gentle comedy really scores for me. Hardy Kruger is very good, then again so are all the players in this film. However, I have to admit that one of my favourite actresses, the beautiful Sylvia Syms not only steals the film but also my heart. The Cambridge scenes and scenery are beautiful too, and as someone who lives near that iconic City it really is shown off at it's best. Others have suggested this is a film to watch if you have nothing else to do, I disagree, this feelgood film for me is a joy and as such needs to be watched and appreciated for what it is - a lovely piece of our past when things were simpler, happier and more innocent.

German exchange student (Hardy Kruger) comes to the fictional University College, Cambridge. A collection of stereotypical but enjoyable Varsity capers ensue. Sylvia Syms is positively radiant - the proverbial English Rose. She has a knack for bringing the film to life whenever she appears on screen. The remainder of the players form a very predictable bunch of undergrads in their mid-twenties and profs in ttheir mid-eighties. Lovely views of the City, and one or two well orchestrated set-pieces (the raid on all-female college Girton is notable) make this effortless viewing.

Wolf Rilla did his best with this film, but it ended up looking like a fluffy cake in the shape of Cambridge, well beyond its sell by date. A few years earlier it may have worked but by 1958 it appeared still looking pretty visually but stale. John Osborne had written ' Look Back in Anger ' and from America ' Blackboard Jungle ' and ' Rebel Without A Cause ' had shaken up the insides of schools. But here in this meandering film the relentless high jinks of privileged youth and secret ceremonies still reigned causing mock havoc. Throwing Hardy Kruger as an exchange student in a mock execution into the relentlessly punting river was still ' fun ' and as the British take a long time in growing up it may still continue. Sylvia Syms is utterly wasted as Kruger's girlfriend ( not that much chemistry showed ) and Ronald Lewis tried to be funny as a fellow student but they all must have known that there was very little to do with their roles. The one plot highlight was Kruger on a hunting search for women for his fellow students to take to a ball, and that should have been cut out or shortened. It was boring and sexist and the ultimate insult was that the ' girls ' once rounded up like cattle seemed to like their moronic companions. I dreaded a joke about the Germans and ' the War ' but Rilla fortunately avoided that, and I give it a 5 for showing a boringly normal German, unlike the usual stereotyped Germans in the endless War heroics cluttering up the British film industry. For that one important element the film was refreshing.