The title role is taken by Pauline Stroud, but the real interest today lies in spotting future stars Diana Dors, Dana Wynter, Joan Collins and Kay Kendall as well as a host of established names such as Dennis Price and Stanley Holloway and many others. Best of all is Alastair Sim in his single scene as a has-been producer ruminating on the state of the British Film Industry,.It's four minutes of sheer magic.
Synopsis
A girl wins beauty contest and thinks she is on the way to fame and stardom, however she slowly sinks lower and lower, and loses her boyfriend. She is about to have to perform in a nude show when she is rescued by her parents.
One of the lesser known films from the prolific director/producer team of Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, this has more than enough quality to make it well above average.
Story follows the fortunes of village girl Marjorie, whose parents run the local corner shop. She is spurred out of her dull existence when she wins a local beauty contest. This leads on to a bigger beauty pageant which she also wins after befriending another contestant (Diana Dors), who lets Marjorie win the rigged event.
This is a simple story well told, with a multitude of locations and characters which result in a surprisingly complex narrative. We follow Marjorie's misfortune as she is entangled by the trappings of success in the male dominated glamour industry, continually forced to compromise her ideals. Despite her fall from grace, she retains the audiences sympathy - her motives are always honourable, not motivated by greed but simply the desire to make something of herself and not accept a life of mediocrity. She eventually ends up as a nude Lady Godiva in a seedy flea-pit of a theatre, watched by her outraged parents who have come to see her.
Lady Godiva Rides Again' is really a pleasant surprise and far above the low budget 'B' film which I thought it was going to be. The cast is large with a multitude of already, or soon-to-be, well known faces - these include George Cole, Joan Collins, Stanley Holloway, Sid James, Dennis Price, Michael Ripper, Alastair Sim, Googie Withers, Dana Wynter and the already mentioned Diana Dors. I'm not sure what happened to Pauline Stroud who played Marjorie - she only seemed to appear in three more films.
While comparison with Ealing comedies isn't really possible, as here the story is played straight, in terms of production, performances etc. 'Lady Godiva Rides Again' can feel highly praised in that it could be mistaken as a minor entry from the famous West London studio.
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