Make Mine Mink (1960)
Directed by Robert Asher

Film Review

British film comedy was probably at its height in the late 1950s, early '60s, owing to an abundance of talent on both sides of the camera.  Make Mine Mink is typical of the ebullient comedy of this era, with larger than life performances and a script that is so drenched in gags it is often impossible to know where one joke stops and the next begins.  Few films celebrate the eccentricity of the British and their flair for innocent knockabout humour more vigorously than this tirelessly funny comedy classic. 

With a cast that includes comedy giants of the calibre of Terry-Thomas, Athene Seyler and Hattie Jacques, it is hard to see how the film could be anything other than an uproarious, laugh-a-second romp.   Terry-Thomas discards his familiar cad persona here and instead plays a likeable retired army officer, whose well-planned operations, arranged with military precision, invariably end up going awry, thanks mainly to the ineptitude of a mousie spinster played by Elspeth Duxbury.   Terry-Thomas has plenty of opportunity to deliver his famous catchphrase "What a shower" but, alas, deigns to do so in this film.  (He would probably have sounded like a gramophone with a stuck needle.)

Athene Seyler is a delight as the dowager Dame Beatrice, who sees nothing wrong in stealing fur coats to raise money for worthwhile causes, and Hattie Jacques is hilarious as the etiquette teacher with extreme Stalinist tendencies.   And that's not to overlook the enjoyable contributions from Billie Whitelaw, Irene Handl (equipped with the dodgiest Russian accent outside a James Bond film) and Kenneth Williams (who was about to become a household name through his regular appearances in the Carry On films).  

Make Mine Mink is glorious farce from the golden age of British film comedy.  Based on Peter Coke's popular stage play Breath of Spring, it parodies the caper movies of the era and is perhaps most memorable for its outrageous spoof homage to Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), complete with the famous zither theme.  Some film comedies of this era have dated badly but, no doubt owing to the pedigree of its cast, this one remains as fresh and sidesplittingly funny as it was when it was first released.  This is as good as it gets in the British comedy department, a class one chortle buster.

Film Synopsis

Dame Beatrice Appleby is at a loss when she has to give up her charity work.  Just what will she do with her time now?  Her maid, Lily, tries to cheer her up by giving her a valuable mink coat which she fished from the balcony of a neighbouring couple, the Spanagers.  Dame Beatrice is grateful for the the gesture but insists that the coat be returned to its rightful owner.  The problem is that Lily has only recently completed a stretch in prison for burglary and if she returns the coat she risks ending up back in jail.  Fortunately, Dame Beatrice and her three lodgers - retired army man Albert Rayne, bullying etiquette teacher Nanette Parry and timid china mender Elizabeth Pinkerton - have the solution.  They will create a diversion to lure the Spanagers out of their flat so that Major Rayne can return the fur coat unseen.  Dame Beatrice and her lodgers are surprised, and exhilarated, that the scheme works.  In fact, they are so exhilarated that they decide to form a gang specialising in the theft of fur coats...