Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1953
Our Girl Friday
Buy Our Girl Friday now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Our Girl Friday' (U.S. title 'The Adventures of Sadie') is a 1953 British comedy film starring Joan Collins, George Cole, Kenneth More and Robertson Hare. It is about a woman who is shipwrecked with three men on a deserted island.
The film was based on the Australian writer Norman Lindsay's 1934 novel 'The Cautious Amorist'.
Plot
A ship collision results in four survivors from an ocean liner winding up on a desert island: spoiled heiress Sadie, lecturer Professor Gibble, journalist Jimmy Carrol and ship's stoker Pat Plunket.
Carrol falls in love with Sadie and she kisses him. Gibble falls in love with Sadie. This causes conflict between Carrol and Gibble that results in Sadie wanting to move to the other side of the island to live alone.
Gibble gets the wrong impression that Pat and Sadie are intimate. Pat finds a bottle of rum and gets drunk.
Sadie takes over as leader on the island. When the men threaten to strike, she declares that the group will never function until she marries one of the men. They draw straws and Gibble gets the short straw, but tries to back out in favour of Pat. Then a ship appears and the group is rescued.
Safe on the ship, Gibble falls in love with Sadie again and asks her to marry him. So does Carrol. However, Sadie is in love with Pat, but he refuses her marriage proposal, saying they are too different. But Sadie persuades the ship's captain that Pat is obliged to marry her, but before it can happen that ship goes down.
Sadie wades ashore at the same island where Pat has already arrived.
Cast
*Joan Collins as Sadie Patch
*George Cole as Jimmy Carrol
*Kenneth More as Pat Plunkett
*Robertson Hare as Professor Gibble
*Hermione Gingold as Spinster
*Walter Fitzgerald as Captain
*Hattie Jacques as Mrs. Patch
*Felix Felton as Mr. Patch
*Lionel Murton as Barman
Production
Norman Lindsay's novel 'The Cautious Amorist' was published in 1931. It was banned in parts of Australia.
Film rights were purchased in 1948. It was to be written and directed by Noel Langley and Robertson Hare was attached as a star. The original producer was John Sutro and the working title was 'Sadie was a Lady'. Lucille Ball was going to be the female star. Then Jane Russell was going to play it. By now George Minter was producer and the title was 'The Girl on the Island'. The film ended up not being made until several years later.
Joan Collins was borrowed from J. Arthur Rank to appear in the film. "I wore a bikini and no make up", said Collins later. "It was quite restful and more like a holiday than work." Collins later claimed she was the first actress to appear in a bikini on screen in this film. Her character tears up a shirt into a makeshift one. The movie was mostly shot on location in Majorca, Spain. More's fee was 4,500.
Reception
Although the film was released after 'Genevieve' (1953), which made More a star, it performed disappointingly at the box office.Kenneth More, 'More or Less', Hodder & Stoughton, 1978 p 160
References
Buy Our Girl Friday now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1953