To celebrate the wonderful Glynis Johns' 100th Birthday, today the 5th October, 2023, enjoy this charming British Romantic Mermaid Fantasy Comedy, and wish Glynis Johns a Happy Birthday...
Very successful at the time, it still holds up today, if you ask me, there's something fishy about this case...
Watch the sequel, Mad About Men 1954, on this channel here [ Ссылка ]
I made improvements to the video here and there, for your viewing pleasure!
Miranda is a 1948 British comedy film, directed by Ken Annakin and written by Peter Blackmore, who also wrote the play of the same name from which the film was adapted. Denis Waldock provided additional dialogue. Music for the film was played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Muir Mathieson. The sound director was B. C. Sewell, location filming was in London and Cornwall.
Stars: Glynis Johns, Googie Withers, Griffith Jones, Margaret Rutherford, John McCallum. David Tomlinson
Director: Ken Annakin
Writers: Peter Blackmore, Denis Waldock
Insights:
The film was based on a play by Peter Blackmore. He says he was inspired to write it after reading a scientific article about mermaids.
The play was a hit in London, starring Genine Graham, and had a run in New York with Diana Lynn.
Production
The film was put into production hurriedly in order to beat Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid to the screen. The initial director was Michael Chorlton. According to Ken Annakin, filming had been going for less than two weeks when Chorlton was fired by the head of the studio, Sydney Box, who was unhappy with the director's handling of the material, particularly his over-use of wide-angle, deep focus camera techniques. Box asked Annakin, who had just finished filming Broken Journey to take over, which the director reluctantly did after Box pointed out it was either him or someone else. Annakin took over with three days of preparation.
Annakin said the "script was full of well-tried, funny fishy jokes" and "was inevitably going to be a stagey-type movie." He says he "despised" Griffith Jones "as a man" because he was difficult to deal with, "always trying to score over the other actors." Annakin says he developed a crush on Johns during filming and she tried to seduce him one night (she was married, but her husband was gay) - but he refused because he did not want her to have power over him. They went on to make six more films together.
The end credits include the line "Tail by Dunlop". All underwater scenes were shot with a stunt double. Joan Hebden[citation needed] wore the tail by Dunlop. Glynis Johns stated in later interviews that the rubber tail was very buoyant, which caused problems as it tended to keep her head under the water.
Reception (Box office)
The film was one of the most popular movies at the British box office in 1948. According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1948 Britain was The Best Years of Our Lives with Spring in Park Lane being the best British film and 'runners up' being It Always Rains on Sunday, My Brother Jonathan, Road to Rio, Miranda, An Ideal Husband, Naked City, The Red Shoes, Green Dolphin Street, Forever Amber, Life with Father, The Weaker Sex, Oliver Twist, The Fallen Idol and The Winslow Boy.
Producer's receipts were £143,400 in the UK and £32,600 overseas, meaning it recorded a profit of £5,600. Annakin says the film was not popular in America at all due to the release of Mr Peabody and the Mermaid; he claims the makers of that movie threatened to sue Gainsborough for copyright infringement but the latter were protected by the fact it was based on a play.
Glynis Johns and Margaret Rutherford reprised their roles in the 1954 colour sequel, Mad About Men.
I added original subtitles for all the languages I could find, in this case, English, Spanish, French,and Russian,YouTube should translate those into other languages quite well.
PERFORMANCE:
0:00:00 REEL ONE
0:20:00 REEL TWO
0:40:00 REEL THREE
1:00:00 REEL FOUR
Main Cast:
Glynis Johns as Miranda Trewella
Googie Withers as Clare Martin
Griffith Jones as Dr Paul Martin
John McCallum as Nigel
Margaret Rutherford as Nurse Carey
David Tomlinson as Charles
Yvonne Owen as Betty, the Martins' other servant and Charles's girlfriend
Sonia Holm as Isobel
Brian Oulton as Manell
Zena Marshall as Secretary
Lyn Evans as Inn Landlady
Stringer Davis as Museum Attendant
Hal Osmond as Railway Carman
Maurice Denham as Cockle Vendor
Technical Details:
Additional Dialogue Denis Waldock
Based on Miranda by Peter Blackmore
Produced by Betty E. Box
Cinematography Ray Elton
Bryan Langley (uncredited)
Edited by Gordon Hales
Music Temple Abady
Production Company Gainsborough Pictures
Distributed by J. Arthur Rank, General Film Distributors (UK), Eagle Lion (US)
Release Date 6 April 1948
Running Time 80 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Budget £170,400
Box office £181,300 (by Dec 1949)
Thanks to IMDB & Wikipedia for much of this information.
