The Adventures of Jane

This is little better or more than an extension of the 1930's "Daily Mirror" comic strip about a rather hapless heroine "Jane" who frequently gets herself into scrapes that usually end up with her scantily clad (by the standards of the day) and in need of some sort of gallant rescue. In this film, she is given a bracelet without knowing that it contains an expensive diamond and her admirer and his slimy associate try to use her to smuggle the jewel into the country then to abscond with it. If one was to be seriously critical at all of this farcical little yarn, then it would that Christabel Leighton-Porter was probably just too old to portray the rather empty-headed bimbo that she was meant to be. There's a fun little cameo from Peter Butterworth as the drunk; but otherwise this is just a rather politically incorrect, forgettable, Saturday morning feature.

Low-budget attempt to cash in on the (waning) popularity of the saucy British comic strip is very thin soup indeed. The innocent Jane would repeatedly lose her clothing in the course of her adventures in print but only has her skirt ripped off a couple of times on celluloid due to the censorship rules of the time. The plot, involving diamond smugglers who use Jane as an unsuspecting mule, feels like an afterthought. Carry On regular Peter Butterworth makes an early appearance as an unfunny drunk who mistakenly sleeps with Jane's dachshund, Fritz.

In the United States, there is a stereotype that the British are extremely well mannered and sophisticated. This is in spite of evidence to the contrary which seems to say they can be just as lowbrow and dopey as the rest of us. Sure, they have produced many classic films as well as television shows (such as "Downton Abbey" and "I, Claudius")....but they also have brought the world "The Benny Hill Show" and drivel like "The Adventures of Jane".

So what IS "The Adventures of Jane"? Well, apparently it is a movie based on a comic strip for adults and Jane is apparently very accident prone and always ends up having her clothing ripped off of her! Sophisticated? Hardly! And in the film, it's pretty much what you'd expect, as it's filled with very bad jokes (the sorts you'd expect to hear on stage in a burlesque-type review) and Jane standing about in her underwear.

Overall, this film was too broadly written, acted and directed to be seen as anything other than a bad little curio. Apparently, the plan was originally to make a series of these films but the British public, fortunately, did not embrace the movie and further movies were dropped. It's bad and difficult to watch....trust me on this!

The Adventures Of Jane is based on a popular comic strip in Great Britain that never traveled across the pond. Jane is a stripper either on the job or off it she always seems to be shedding herself of her clothing.

I guess the closest thing to Jane over in America would have been Marie Wilson in her ingenuousness.

In this film Christabel Leighton-Porter is wooed with a bracelet by an admirer who is trying to make her a recruit in a smuggling racket.

In a role that called for a Marie Wilson, Ms. Leighton-Porter is not. A planned for series never materialized in fact her career never materialized.

Still it's a curiousity.

'Jane' was a popular comic strip character seen in British newspapers in the 1940s. She was a glamorous figure, ever losing her clothing in order to titillate the war-haunted male readership, and THE ADVENTURES OF JANE is a film designed to bring her voluptuous talents to the screen. It was made in Brighton on an obviously cheap budget, but sadly other than the novelty value there isn't really much reason to tune in.

The problem with the film isn't Jane so much, as Christabel Leighton-Porter does a pretty good job in the role. She's no actress, of course, but she's a statuesque blonde who makes an impact. There are a couple of mildly racy moments in which she loses her skirt or parades around in her underwear, but these feel very tame by modern standards and of course there's no nudity even hinted at.

The rest of the plot is episodic in nature and involves a gang of criminals who use Jane to smuggle a priceless diamond into the country. The emphasis is on dated and genteel comedy throughout but the film lacks decent actors and plotting to make it work. Jane's dachshund, Frits, is probably the best actor in it. Watch out for Peter Butterworth in a random extended cameo playing a drunk.