This film was shown today at the BFI Southbank in the presence of one of its stars,Peggy Cummins.She told us that this was an important stepping stone in her career,since as a result of her performance she was offered a contract at 20th Century Fox were she stayed for 5 years.She plays the younger sister of Barbara Mullen who have inherited a manor and farm but no money to run it.The Americans come in as they are planning to build a base on the surrounding area and take over the manor.Through rumours I'll will is generated particularly by a dispossessed farmer.However Barbara Mullen clears the air and becomes engaged to an American officer.Basically this film was clearly designed to dispelling the ill will generated by the arrival of American troops.Prints were found at the Cinema Museum and Paramount archive.An excellent 70 minute digital print has been made.
2 Reviews
Our Gallant American Allies
richardchatten10 October 2020
An offbeat wartime film reflecting Britain's nervousness about the Americans soon due to arrive en masse on these shores ("has the gentleman ever spoken of marriage?").
It was given more fanciful treatment after the war was safely over in 'A Matter of Life and Death'; while the title anticipates the postwar Spanish comedy about the Marshall Plan, 'Bienvenido, Mr Marshall' (1952).
Here the tone - reflected in Erwin Hillier' moody photography - is surprisingly dark (for which the gallumphingly hearty music strains hard to compensate) and local antagonists Roy Emerton and Martita Hunt a rather sinister pair. But Barbara Mullen and the late Peggy Cummins make attractively offbeat leads, if unlikely sisters.
It was given more fanciful treatment after the war was safely over in 'A Matter of Life and Death'; while the title anticipates the postwar Spanish comedy about the Marshall Plan, 'Bienvenido, Mr Marshall' (1952).
Here the tone - reflected in Erwin Hillier' moody photography - is surprisingly dark (for which the gallumphingly hearty music strains hard to compensate) and local antagonists Roy Emerton and Martita Hunt a rather sinister pair. But Barbara Mullen and the late Peggy Cummins make attractively offbeat leads, if unlikely sisters.
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