Ladies Who Do (1963)
Directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards

Film Review

Such was the immediate success of the BBC television sitcom Steptoe and Son that its star Harry H. Corbett was soon being courted by film producers keen to exploit his comic talents.  Prior to Steptoe, Corbett had enjoyed the favour of theatre critics as a serious dramatic actor and was once dubbed 'the English Marlon Brando', but it was in comedy (mostly for television) that he was to be most successful.  Ladies Who Do was one of Corbett's more respectable ventures into film comedy, although here he has to contend with two other comedy heavyweights, in the shape of Peggy Mount and Robert Morley, both at the top of their game and more than capable of making mincemeat of a comedy upstart like Corbett.  Not only that, the cast is also studded with many other notable comedy performers, some of who would rival Corbett's popularity on television: Miriam Karlin, Dandy Nichols, Jon Pertwee, Ron Moody, John Laurie and Arthur Mullard, to name just six.  Here, Karlin ('Everybody out!') and Nichols ('Silly Moo!') are worryingly close to the characters they portrayed in the sitcoms that made them famous, respectively The Rag Trade and Till Death Us Do Part.  After this, working with Wilfred Bramble must have been a doddle.

With so much talent raining down on it, you wonder why Ladies Who Do isn't an all-time comedy classic.  Perhaps the writing and directing might have something to do with this...?  The man who directed the film, C.M. Pennington-Richards, is better known for his work as a cinematographer, on such films as 1984 (1956) and Scrooge (1951), and he is perhaps better distinguished by his directorial work for television, including the popular series Ivanhoe (1958-9) which gave Roger Moore his first big break.  For the most part, Pennington-Richards directs Ladies Who Do pretty much as a routine sitcom, and when opportunities for outlandish visual comedy present themselves (as in the film's climactic confrontation between charladies and builders) these are mostly wasted.  Michael Pertwee's script has a few juicy one-liners ("You couldn't have a derogatory effect on her health if you ran over her with a bulldozer!") but well-judged pep and inspiration are conspicuous by their absence - whilst the film starts off from a good premise, it goes adrift towards the midpoint and soon becomes a fairly aimless 'small guy pitted against big business' farce.  Fortunately, there's enough high grade comedy ammunition in the cast to prevent the humour from drying up, so what could have been a dull and rudderless satire ends up as a delicious zany romp.

Any doubt as to Peggy Mount's claim to be the reincarnation of Boudica (or, failing that, Brunhilda) is surely laid to rest by her formidable presence in this film.  With a tongue that can lash through a six inch thick slab of concrete at sixty paces and a glare almost as deadly, Mount's Mrs Cragg is so terrifyingly belligerent that she could have neutralised the entire Red Army and rendered nuclear weapons obsolete in less time than it takes to raise a surrender flag.  Poor Harry H. and his stammering stooge Mr Pertwee haven't a hope against this Godzilla-like harridan - both are lucky to get away with their lives, let alone their careers.  Why do we bother pouring millions upon millions into the armed services, you wonder, when all we need to defend the country is a few dozen lethal charladies like Mrs Cragg, each equipped with enough bile and sarcasm to cripple an army in seconds.  Ron Goodwin gave Margaret Rutherford her signature tune with his famous Miss Marple theme (written for Murder She Said); here he serves Peggy Mount and her retinue of aproned viragos in the same way with a theme that is almost as memorable - the tasty icing on a seriously over-spiced fruit cake.

Film Synopsis

Mrs Cragg is a middle-aged charlady who supplements her income as an office cleaner by keeping house for a retired army man, Colonel Whitforth.  One day, she presents the colonel with a cigar she had earlier fished out of a waste paper bin in one of the offices where she works.  The cigar happens to be wrapped in a piece of paper on which is written confidential information about a City takeover bid.  Whitforth makes use of this information to earn himself an instant £5000 on the stock market, and this gives him the idea to make even more money.   If Mrs Cragg and her charlady friends can lay their hands on other useful snippets of information whilst cleaning their offices Whitforth will be able to buy and sell shares at a tremendous profit.  With the money earned, they will then be in a position to stop the evil property developer James Ryder from demolishing the London street where Mrs Cragg and her friends have lived all their lives.  All is well until a bad investment wipes out the fortune Whitforth and his charlady associates have amassed.  As Ryder sends in the bulldozers to carry through his development scheme, Mrs Cragg galvanises her neighbours into rising up to oppose him...