Mad About Men (1954)

This is quite an enjoyable vehicle for a mischievous Glynis Johns, who doubles up as a gymnastics teacher ("Caroline") who is left a remote house on the Cornish coast, and a mermaid ("Miranda") who lives with her equally cheeky friend "Berengaria" (Dora Bryan) in a cave underneath. The two characters have a common ancestor and look identical, so when "Caroline" heads off on a cycling trip, her mermaid cousin takes her place - and immediately starts to charm just about every man in the village. Many of us who recall later performances from (Sir) Donald Sinden may forget just how handsome he was as he falls for her; as does "Col. Barclay Sutton" (Nicholas Phipps) whose fiancée "Barbara" (Anne Crawford) tires of the endless flirtations and sets about trying to put a spoke in her wheel. Margaret Rutherford is her usual, ebullient, self as the enthusiastically game nurse who is in on the whole thing from the start. It's amusingly suggestive at times, and the dialogue quite witty but the film is way too long, and once the joke has worn off it drags a bit. It is better, I felt, than the rather more rigid, staid original from 1948 however, and well worth a gander.