Penny Princess

Penny Princess is a 1952 British Technicolor comedy film written and directed by Val Guest and starring Yolande Donlan, Dirk Bogarde and A. E. Matthews. It was made by Guest for his own production company, Conquest Productions. The film stars his future wife Donlan, who was Guest's production company partner, and features Reginald Beckwith, the other partner in Conquest Productions.[1] It was released by General Film Distributors. It was distributed in America the following year by Universal Pictures.

Penny Princess
Directed byVal Guest
Written byVal Guest
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyGeoffrey Unsworth
Edited byAlfred Roome
Music byRonald Hanmer
Production
company
Conquest Productions
Distributed byGeneral Film Distributors
Release date
25 August 1952
Running time
91 minutes
Country
  • United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

It was made at Pinewood Studios near London. Location shooting took place in Montseny, Catalonia, the first British production to be filmed in Spain.[2] The film's sets were designed by the art director Maurice Carter.

Plot

The fictional European microstate of Lampidorra has "no taxes, no quotas, no tariffs, no forms to fill in". Its two thousand residents make their money from the national (and legal) profession of smuggling to and from its neighbors: France, Italy, and Switzerland. However, the country falls on hard times and becomes bankrupt.

The small state seeks the financial support of the United States in the guise of a rich American who buys the whole country for $100,000. When he dies shortly afterward, Lampidorra is inherited by his distant relative, Lindy Smith, a Macy's shopgirl.

On the way to her new realm, Lindy meets Tony Craig, an inexperienced British salesman trying to sell cheese to the Swiss. When she arrives in Lampidorra, Lindy is met by the ruling triumvirate: the Chancellor, who is a cobbler; the Burgomeister, who is a policeman; and the Minister of Finance, who is a blacksmith. As her first royal decree, she outlaws smuggling. However, this exacerbates the financial crisis, as her inheritance will be tied up for at least six months by legalities.

By chance, teetotaler Lindy gets a bit tipsy when she samples Lampidorran "schneese", a cheese made with Schnapps. She decides it would make a terrific export and has Tony brought to her to help market it. The alcoholic cheese is a sensation, but the other European nations soon respond to the threat to their own cheese industries by imposing tariffs. Lampidorra turns to its traditional smuggling expertise to avoid paying them.

Tony falls in love with Lindy and proposes, but an intercepted telegram from his employer leads Lindy to wrongly suspect he is just after the secret recipe for schneese. The misunderstanding is eventually cleared up. In the end, Lindy finally receives her full inheritance, allowing her to bail out her subjects and depart with Tony.

Cast

Production

Val Guest made the film through the Rank Organisation.

Val Guest attempted to obtain Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, Robert Cummings and William Holden for the male cheese salesman lead, but they all turned him down.[3][4] He says Frank Sinatra wanted to do it - this was during a downturn in Sinatra's career - but Earl St. John rejected him. Robert Cummings was willing to do it but he was engaged in a television show. St John suggested Dirk Bogarde. Guest said, "I tested him in one scene and it was not very good and he knew it too, which we finally cut from the film. He couldn’t really handle that, but he was very good in the other stuff, and after that of course he did all the Doctor series."[1]

Bogarde later said he thought the film "as funny as a baby's coffin".[4]

Reception

Guest said the film "was successful but it didn’t make a fortune. It just about covered itself."[1]

Notes
  1. Fowler, Roy (1988). "Interview with Val Guest". British Entertainment History Project.
  2. p.90 Mitchell, John Flickering Shadows: A Lifetime in Film 1997 Harold Martin & Redman
  3. p.27 Dixon, Wheeler M. Film Talk: Directors at Work 2007 Rutgers University Press
  4. Arnold, Jeremy. "Penny Princess". TCM.
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