MY REVIEW

My Son is home from college and his afternoon in town. Not seen him so far. He is out polishing his car. Sadly he used a polish on it the other day but it has left marks on it. We told him to take it to the Polish polishers. Haha. They are a group of Polish lads, who do the best job, but his Dad gave him a kit and he couldn’t wait to use it naturally. I just hope it comes off. It’s all practice. And thankfully it’s on little Bertha, or whatever he will call her.

 

Did you ever see the film Genevieve?

Oh it’s my absolute by a country mile favourite film in the whole world. It’s a 1953 film.  It’s British and directed by Henry Cornelius. Written by William Rose. Starring Dinah Sheridan, John Gregson Kenneth More and Kay Kendall.

Its duration is just under an hour and a half

Two couples comedically involved in a veteran automobile rally. 

 

The story revolves around the two veteran cars travelling from London to Brighton, in an annual run. A young barrister and his wife drive Genevieve a 1904 car, and their friends the guy is a brash salesman and his latest girl a model and her pet a ST Bernard hehehe. Well, that sets the scene?           

 

Well, it all goes very wrong and it’s quintessential English humour and accents just totally epitomise the old English film.

 

To my delight you can purchase this DVD on Amazon. Though I’m sure the write up on there or in my blog doesn’t do the film justice.

 

For anyone who travels the congested roads of Britain these days the utterly delightful Genevieve will provoke a wistful, nostalgic sigh of regret for times gone by when there were no motorways, traffic jams were almost non-existent and friendly police motor cyclists riding classic Nortons (without helmets) cheerfully let people driving vintage cars race each other along country lanes. Even in 1953, Henry Cornelius’ gentle comedy must have seemed pleasingly old-fashioned, concerned as it is with the antics of two obsessive enthusiasts on the annual London to Brighton classic car rally. The principal quartet could hardly be bettered: though John Gregson is something of a cold fish as Genevieve’s proud owner, the radiant warmth of Dinah Sheridan as his long-suffering wife more than compensates. Kenneth More is ideally cast in the role of boastful rival enthusiast and Kay Kendall has possibly the best comic moment of all when she astonishes everyone with her drunken trumpet playing.

 

Cornelius also directed Ealing’s Passport to Pimlico, so his sure eye for gently mocking and celebrating British eccentricities is never in doubt. The screenplay by (American writer) William Rose now seems like an elegy to a way of life long disappeared: the pivotal moment when Gregson stops to humour a passing old buffer about his love of classic cars comes from a vanished era of politeness before road rage; as does the priceless exchange between hotel owner Joyce Grenfell and her aged resident: "No one’s ever complained before", says the mystified Grenfell after Gregson and Sheridan moan about the facilities, "Are they Americans?" asks the old lady, unable to conceive that anyone British could say such things. Genevieve is both a wonderful period comedy and a nostalgic portrait of England the way it used to be.

And oh how I wish it was still like it was in this film.