Make Mine Mink **** (1960, Terry-Thomas, Athene Seyler, Hattie Jacques, Elspeth Duxbury, Billie Whitelaw, Jack Hedley, Raymond Huntley, Irene Handl, Kenneth Williams) – Classic Movie Review 8122

Director Robert Asher’s 1960 movie Make Mine Mink is a delightfully zany and quirky British farcical comedy, with Terry-Thomas on top form as an aging retired officer, Major Rayne, who links up with three old ladies to steal mink furs for charity. But then their ex-convict housekeeper Lily (Billie Whitelaw) is suspected of the robberies. 

Treasurable players Athene Seyler, Hattie Jacques and Elspeth Duxbury (as Beatrice, Nanette and Pinky) as the ladies, as well as notable appearances from redoubtable Billie Whitelaw, Jack Hedley, Raymond Huntley, Irene Handl, Kenneth Williams, Sydney Tafler, Ron Moody and Joan Heal, add a special touch of class to an amusing, fast-paced script. Asher’s direction is more fake fur rather than mink, but that is OK too. Like so many British film comedies of the era, it is based on a stage play. The screenplay by Michael Pertwee and Peter Blackmore is based on the play Breath of Spring by Peter Coke.

Also in the vintage cast are Penny Morrell, Freddie Frinton, Michael Balfour, Noel Purcell, Clement Freud, Helen Gerald, Claire Golding, May Hallatt, Caroline Leigh, Michael Peake, Gordon Philpott, Wensley Pithey, Steven Scott, Denis Shaw, Dorinda Stevens, Derek Sydney, Felicity Young, Colin Gordon and Peter Vaughan.

It was adapted as John Kander and Fred Ebb’s 1971 musical 70, Girls, 70, which starred Mildred Natwick but ran for only 35 performances on Broadway.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8122

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