Date Released : 18 April 1955
Genre : Drama
Stars : Terence Morgan, Mai Zetterling, Guy Rolfe, Mandy Miller
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB
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The story of a successful dancer's fight with her husband for the attention of their daughter.
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Review :
A 'Women's Own' short story melodrama
Britain. Mid Fifties. A worthless opportunist pushes his wife to become a prima ballerina while all the time he is cheating on her with another dancer. She finds out about his affair and drives off, only to crash in a near fatal accident. The doctors tell her that she will never dance again. The husband leaves her and their child to do a Continental European and American tour with his new meal-ticket lover. A sympathetic doctor helps the ex-ballerina to recover (falling in love with her in the process - as they always do) and the daughter becomes a dance prodigy. Mum teaches her all she knows. The husband, now Hollywood talent scout, returns to Britain, having dumped his lover in New York. His producer thinks the little girl is just perfect for his new picture and threatens to fire Dad if he can't get his Mum to sign a contract. Dad tries to blackmail his wife by sending the babysitter home and spreading rumours about her and the Nice Doctor. The house catches fire putting the little girl's life in danger and Dad heroically saves her loosing his own life in the process.
Predictable, stolid movie equivalent of a 'Women's Own' short story. Wet Sunday afternoon fare if you have nothing better to do - which I obviously haven't.
Professionaly enough made, though the finale is ludicrous. Here's the situation: The little girl is trapped on roof of the burning building "No-one can reach her" the crowd of onlookers tell each other. Dad runs into the next building, climbs up, runs past two firefighters waving a hose around jumps across the 4 foot!! gap between the buildings, picks her up, wraps her in his jacket (why?) then THROWS her across to one of the firemen. Why he would think that this brave firefighter who has been unable to get across so ludicrously small a gap will be able to catch and hold a girl, loosely wrapped in an over-sized, unsecured jacket is beyond me - but then people do do stupid things in moments of crisis (and mediocre British films). Dad then does that stupid 'throwing his arms in the air, bad silent-movie acting' thing as the roof collapses beneath him and he plunges to his implied doom. I say 'implied' because the film making is so shaky at this point an onlooker's voice has to shout "look out! the roof is collapsing" to let us know what is happening.
Some of the acting in this film is so ritualised and formulaic it is like watching a Japanese Noh play or Indian Dancing. Watch out for the Mum's "Great British turn away to show suppressed emotion" that she does when the little girl asks from her hospital bed if Daddy is "all right?". This is followed immediately by a near perfect "Shoulder touch of support and unrequited love" by the doctor. Classic Bad British Movie Acting moves of their time.
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