‘A French
Mistress’ is a Boulting film dating from 1960.
It is not one of their better known ones, yet it is full of familiarity.
Cecil Parker, James Robertson Justice, Irene Handl and Thorley Walters fill the
screen with their usual personas. The scene is a private boys’ school – and on
the subject of familiar names and faces Michael Crawford is listed as being one
of the pupils. I have to say that I didn’t actually notice him while I was
watching.
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| Thorley Walters when he was little more than a school boy, thanks to Richard Hope-Hawkins from my Facebook page In Search of Thorley Walters |
In some
respects, this is a fun film with a fair bit to recommend it – not least Irene
as the stressed school cook. But it is
also desperately old fashioned and, in my view, this overrides any sense of
nostalgia. The French Mistress of the
title is a 20-something Mademoiselle who takes up the vacant position of French
teacher at the school. The previous
incumbents of the post have all been sent galloping back home due to Irene’s
cooking, and Mlle Lafarge is consequently the only applicant for a job that has
become notorious. This causes all kinds of hoo-ha at the bastion of chauvenism
that is the 1950s/60s boys school. There
are only four female characters in total, and I thought that these served to
illustrate the four ages of woman as seen by the patriarchy at this time.
1)
Totty.
(Agnes Laurent as Mlle Lafarge) The French mistress is 22 years old, is good to
look at and responds positively to romantic overtures.
2)
Matron.
(Edith Sharpe as just Matron. She doesn’t even get the dignity of a name) The
school matron is caring, efficient and good in a domestic crisis. She no longer
regards her looks as important and concedes that she is not as good as category
1) anymore.
3)
Widow.
(Irene Handl as Sgt Hodges) The cook is a widow who needs to work but finds the
whole thing a bit too much at ‘her time of life’.
4)
Bitter
old hag. (Athene Seyler as Miss Peake) She has never married and is dependent
on her brother. This makes her
interfering and small minded.
Four good
reasons to be glad you weren’t around in 1960.
Isn't it strange how some 1960s films date so badly and some 1930s films can feel very modern. In a film I really love otherwise 'Great Day' I think it is Margaret Withers who plays the stereotypical bitter spinster who is dependant on her brother. It is the only character that bothers me!
ReplyDeleteOoh I haven't seen that one!
ReplyDelete