Three Hats for Lisa * (1965, Joe Brown, Sidney James, Sophie Hardy, Una Stubbs, Dave Nelson, Peter Bowles, Eric Barker) – Classic Movie Review 11,477

The inept 1965 Swinging Sixties London musical chase comedy Three Hats for Lisa has one of the most unpromising film plots of all time. Joe Brown, Sid James, Sophie Hardy and Una Stubbs star. 

Director Sidney Hayers’s inept 1965 Swinging Sixties London musical chase comedy film Three Hats for Lisa has a screenplay written by Leslie Bricusse and Carry On writer Talbot Rothwell, and stars Joe Brown, Sidney James, Sophie Hardy and Una Stubbs. The original story and all the naff 16 new songs are written by Leslie Bricusse (music and lyrics). It is shot in flat, plain, uninteresting Eastmancolor by Alan Hume and the energetic but generic choreography is by Gillian Lynne.

Likeable Sixties pop star Joe Brown plays a London dock-worker called Johnny Howjego, who gets cockney taxi-driver Sid Marks (Sidney James) to help him take famous rarefied Italian film star Lisa Milan (Hardy) round London to look for classic British hats to pinch. Lisa has an uncontrollable passion  for hats and wants a policeman’s helmet, a businessman’s bowler and a palace guardsman’s bearskin.

This must be one of the most unpromising film plots of all time, and, accordingly, it delivers a British musical of stupefying awfulness, with songs to match. To think the French were making musicals like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg at this time. But if amateurish high spirits and simple-minded good-heartedness were everything then this would be Citizen Kane. With all the Italian actresses available, they hired ‘decorative’ French actress Sophie Hardy instead.

Also in the cast are Dave Nelson as Sammy, Peter Bowles as Pepper, Seymour Green as Signor Molfino, Eric Barker as Station Sergeant, Jeremy Lloyd as Guards Officer, Josephine Blake as Miss Penny, Michael Brennan as Police Sergeant and Howard Douglas as Cinema caretaker, Dickie Owen as Policeman, Norman Mitchell as Truck driver, Arnold Bell as Hilton Doorman, Barrie Gosney as Reporter, Douglas Sheldon as Docks Foreman, and Joe Gladwin as Harry.

Sidney Hayers went on to direct the 1966 British musical film Finders Keepers starring Cliff Richard.

Whatever happened to co-star Dave Nelson, aka David Albert Clark?

Gillian Lynne was born on February 20, 1926 in Bromley, Kent, England, and died on July 1, 2018 in Marylebone, London. The New London Theatre in Drury Lane, the original London home of the musical Cats, was renamed the Gillian Lynne Theatre after its choreographer, the first West End theatre named after a non-royal woman.

Three Hats for Lisa is directed by Sidney Hayers, runs 99 minutes, is made by Seven Hills Productions, is distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors (UK), is written by Leslie Bricusse (original story and screenplay) and Talbot Rothwell (screenplay), is shot by Alan Hume, is produced by Jack Hanbury, and is scored by Leslie Bricusse (music and lyrics) and Eric Rogers composer: incidental music / orchestrations / conductor (uncredited), with Art Direction by Bert Davey.

Release date: May 30, 1965.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,477

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/