Essential: ALL FOR MARY (1955)

TopBilled:

The title character Mary is a beautiful attraction, but she is not the central focus. Mostly she just sets up the story, then reappears to remind viewers what the two male leads are competing over. Mary is played by Jill Day, a performer who had success as a pop singer.

Miss Day had only been in one feature prior to this, and in that earlier production she did a specialty number. So technically, this is her first major role in a motion picture. It seems as if she’s been hired for her looks and her ability to croon a tune, since she has a musical number here too.

The lead male characters couldn’t be more different from her, or from each other. But this discrepancy is undoubtedly intentional and gives the film much of its surreal charm. Nigel Patrick, who typically excels in dramatic parts, is cast as a blowhard sportsman who’s vacationing at a Swiss chalet. When he meets Miss Day, he falls for her and decides she will be his latest game. However, a few obstacles get in the way. More on that in a moment…

The other male lead is played by David Tomlinson, who usually handles comedic roles. Tomlinson is cast as a rather meek guy, also staying at the Alpine resort, who falls for Miss Day too. He probably wouldn’t stand a chance of getting the gal, except fate intervenes in a most peculiar fashion.

This is when both men suddenly come down with a case of the chicken pox. They are contagious and must be kept away from guests who haven’t had the disease before. They are quickly moved into a secluded suite under quarantine together. Of course, the men dislike each other intensely and both intend to get well as soon as is humanly possible, to resume their respective pursuits of Miss Day.

But Tomlinson has an advantage. He summons his old childhood governess, called Nannie, to come nurse him back to health. She will help keep Patrick at a disadvantage in the pulchritude sweepstakes and work her magic to convince Day to choose Tomlinson.

The scenes were Nannie turns up at the inn and takes over are uproarious. A role like this has to be played by only the most skilled comedic actress. And since the producers have brought in eccentric Kathleen Harrison as Nannie, they’ve snagged one of the best.

Miss Harrison is so funny, so memorable with all her line deliveries, that she steals the picture. In addition to the antics, she provides a tender melancholy portrayal. We come to understand that Nannie thrives when she is feeling useful…she likes helping people and doesn’t want this time to end.

Ironically, David Tomlinson would interact with another caregiver later, in the form of Mary Poppins. This movie is a pleasure to watch, and I am itching to see it again. Scratch that, I will re-watch it right now.

***

Jlewis:

ALL FOR MARY is a comedy in bright Eastmancolor, with one connection with the previously reviewed SO LONG AT THE FAIR in character actor David Tomlinson, given a well-suited starring role here. (Disney fans will recognize him from MARY POPPINS, THE LOVE BUG and BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, but he is much the same here in his stuffy humor.) We open with a fluffy song and then some slapstick on an airplane with Tomlinson as neurotic “Humpy” Miller sitting next to calm and collected Captain Clive Norton (Nigel Patrick), both going on a ski holiday in the Alps with the former’s nervousness prompting some chaos among the other passengers.

Wendy Toye directed this amusing look of Brits enjoying the jet-set life of the early Queen Elizabeth era. We are two years past her coronation and a full decade after VE Day; thus, there is an overall rejection of post-war austerity. Switzerland is the destination and, fittingly, we are coming full circle to THE LADY VANISHES with another mountain resort full of snow and dancing among the locals…and some similar painted backdrops that surprisingly don’t look TOO obvious in color due to better props and shrubbery in the foreground and some scenic travelogue shots cleverly interspersed.

Mary (Jill Day) is the lady hostess of the lodge run by fussy Monsieur Victor (David Hurst) and a blonde sweetie whom both rival business men take a liking to as each receive their own ski instruction. Jealous of their flirtations is the flamboyant Billy Gilbert-ish Gaston Nikopopoulos (Leo McKern), but Mary takes it all in stride as she croons sexy numbers to entertain the guests over dinner.

Another lady enters our story on a sleigh at the twenty minute mark: “Miss” Cartwright (Kathleen Harrison) is a nanny of multiple children. She arrives just in the nick of time to bring about her nurse-ly duties. Bad luck hits Humpy as he contracts chicken pox and is put in quarantine, followed by Clive and both are an-itching and scratching.

Lo and behold, this nanny once nursed Humpy when he was much younger and the reunion is most adorable between the two. She views both grown men as “little boys” with “Master” Humpy as the “good” one and “Master” Clive the grumpy “bad” one, a total turnaround to the way the two presented themselves at the start of our picture.

Of course, Gaston makes full use of their time away to make his move on Mary. Rather than “popping into bed” as Nanny tells them, Humpy and Clive insist on using the telescope to observe what may be happening on the ski slopes. At first, they think Mary is carrying on a bit too much with Gaston, but actually she is in friendly cahoots with Nanny…of all people! Gaston does not interest her as much as Humpy (since she favors the shy one over Mister Personality).

It does not take long for the two to escape quarantine before they are totally safe, dressing as Arab sheiks at a costume ball before Nanny catches up to them and locks them back into their shared room. Yet Mary finally visits them and tells them of Gaston being quite the annoyance. With Nanny’s help, they all decide to give that third rival his comeuppance… and allow Humpy to become the object of Mary’s affections over Clive.

I can not say this film is terribly funny, at least by today’s standards, but it was a popular adaptation of a Harold Brooke and Kay Bannerman’s play, adding just enough much-needed visual slapstick to make it cinematic. The story doesn’t amount to much, but Kathleen Harrison and David Tomlinson are still delights and Nigel Patrick at least makes an adequate David Niven/Dean Martin “straight-man”. Other stars playing support include familiars like Lionel Jeffries, Nicholas Phipps and Joan Young.