The Admirable Crichton [Paradise Lagoon] **** (1957, Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Cecil Parker, Sally Ann Howes) – Classic Movie Review 7,757

Kenneth More, Diane Cilento, Cecil Parker and Sally Ann Howes star in director Lewis Gilbert’s amusing 1957 British south seas adventure comedy romance film The Admirable Crichton, based on J M Barrie’s 1902 play.

Director Lewis Gilbert’s 1957 British comedy film The Admirable Crichton [Paradise Lagoon] is an ideally cast, generally very amusing version of Sir J M Barrie’s venerable 1902 play about Lord Henry Loam (Cecil Parker) and his noble family and his servants shipwrecked, cast away and stranded in 1905 on a desert island.

There, in a turnaround from the normal order, the titular butler Crichton (Kenneth More) takes charge as the only person versed in the necessary practical abilities for survival and becomes ‘The Guv’. Crichton is planning to wed Lord Loam’s eldest daughter Lady Mary (Sally Ann Howes) when rescue arrives, but once back home he diverts his attentions to his proper status, and the maid Tweeny (Diane Cilento).

The good cast, the swift pace, compact running time, the top-notch production and More’s admirable performance make up for the slight lack of oomph in the handling and slight shortage of good jokes in the screenplay. Overall The Admirable Crichton is a very well crafted and entertaining old-style comedy drama.

Also in the cast are Martita Hunt, Jack Watling, English actor Peter Graves, Gerald Harper, Miles Malleson, Eddie Byrne, Mercy Haystead, Miranda Connell, Joan Young, Beth Regan, Peter Welch, Roland Curram, John le Mesurier, Brenda Hogan and Toke Townley.

It is a remake of We’re Not Dressing (1934) with Bing Crosby and Carole Lombard. In the silent era there was also a 1918 film directed by G B Samuelson, and Cecil B DeMille’s Male and Female (1919). The play was televised in 1950 and 1968.

The Admirable Crichton [Paradise Lagoon] is directed by Lewis Gilbert, runs 94 minutes, is made by Modern Screen Play, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Vernon Harris and Lewis Gilbert, based on Sir J M Barrie’s play, is shot in Technicolor by Wilkie Cooper, is produced by Ian Dalrymple, is scored by Douglas Gamley and Richard Addinsell (uncredited), and is designed by William Kellner.

Gamley wrote most of the score but Addinsell wrote  a waltz, a polka and a galop. The score is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Muir Mathieson.

Release dates: 11 June 1957 (London) and 16 December 1957 (US).

It did very well. Budget: £221,884. Box office: $840,000 (UK).

The film was shot from September to December 1956 in Bermuda and Shepperton. More was filmed from the waist up as he was wearing shorts with his dinner jacket because of the heat during filming on location in Bermuda. The studio work was carried out at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England. Claremont House is the location for Loam Hall.

The film was turned into a stage musical called Our Man Crichton which opened in 1964 also starring Kenneth More, who was reluctant to do it as he could not sing. It ran six months.

Gilbert and More had just made the 1956 hit Reach for the Sky together.

English actress and singer Sally Ann Howes (born 20 July 1930) is best known as Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but her career on screen, stage and TV spanned six decades. She still hosted events or performed two or three times a year up to her death on 19 December 2021, aged 91.

The cast are Kenneth More as Bill Crichton, the Butler, Diane Cilento as Eliza (Tweeny}.  Cecil Parker as Henry, Earl of Loam, Sally Ann Howes as Lady Mary, Martita Hunt as The Countess of Brocklehurst, Jack Watling as the Rev John Treherne, Peter Graves as George, Earl of Brocklehurst, Gerald Harper as The Hon Ernest Woolley, Mercy Haystead as Lady Catherine, Miranda Connell as Lady Agatha, Miles Malleson as the Vicar, Eddie Byrne as yacht Captain, Joan Young as housekeeper Mrs Perkins, Brenda Hogan as maid Fisher, Peter Welch as valet Rolleston, Toke Townley as head gardener Lovegrove,  John Le Mesurier as chef Monsieur Fleury, Bernard Horsfall as a lifeboatman, and Roland Curram as footman Thomas.

Gilbert recalled: ‘It was freely adapted from the Barrie play to suit Kenny More, and it was a very successful film. I don’t think you owe total allegiance to the original text because you are making something very different. I was very fond of Kenny as an actor. His strength was his ability to portray charm.’

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,757

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