''A Yank in Ermine'' is a 1955 British

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by Gordon Parry and starring Peter Thompson,

Noelle Middleton Evelyn Noelle Woodeson (née Middleton; 18 December 1926 – 30 January 2016) was an Irish actress and one of the first BBC television announcers. She was also a leading lady of the 1950s British films. Middleton received a BAFTA Film Award nom ...

Harold Lloyd Jr. Harold Clayton Lloyd Jr. (January 25, 1931 – June 9, 1971) was an American actor and singer. Career The third child and only son of the silent film comedian Harold Lloyd and former actress Mildred Davis, Lloyd made several B-movies in the 1950s ...

and

Diana Decker Diana Decker (born Isabella Charlotte Diana Decker, 9 January 1925 – 4 January 2019), was a British/American actress, singer, and television personality, who was popular from the 1940s to the early 1960s. Early life Decker was born to an Americ ...

, and featuring

Jon Pertwee John Devon Roland "Jon" Pertwee (; 7 July 1919 – 20 May 1996) was an English actor, comedian, entertainer, cabaret performer and TV presenter. Born into a theatrical family, he served in the Royal Navy and the Naval Intelligence Division during ...

and

Sid James Sidney James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. He was best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series. Born to a mid ...

. It was adapted by

John Paddy Carstairs John Paddy Carstairs (born John Keys; 11 May 1910, in London – 12 December 1970, in London) was a British film director (1933–62) and television director (1962–64), usually of light-hearted subject matter. He was also a comic novelist and ...

from his own novel '' Solid! Said the Earl''. It was shot at

Beaconsfield Studios Beaconsfield Film Studios is a British television and film studio in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. The studios were operational as a production site for films in 1922, and continued producing films - and, later, TV shows - until the 1960s. Bri ...

and on location around

Turville Turville is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England. It is in the Chiltern Hills, west of High Wycombe, east-southeast of Watlington, north of Henley-on-Thames and 2 miles (3 km) from the Oxfordshire border. The name is Anglo-S ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Ray Simm Ray Simm was a British art director. He was nominated three times for the BAFTA Award for Best Production Design for ''The Slipper and the Rose'', ''The Wrong Box'' and '' Darling'', for which he won. Selected filmography * ''The Faithful City' ...

. The film includes the song "Honey, You Can't Love Two", sung by Decker and written by

Eddie Pola Edward Pola (June 23, 1907 – November 3, 1995)Passenger list, S.S. ''Transylvania'', port of New York, 20 August 1931. was an actor, radio/television producer, and songwriter. Pola was born Sidney Edward Pollacsek in New York City, the son of Ida ...

and

George Wyle George Wyle (born Bernard Weissman; March 22, 1916 – May 2, 2003) was an American orchestra leader and composer best known for having written the theme song to 1960s television sitcom ''Gilligan's Island''. He is the grandfather of musici ...

Plot

An American airman (Thompson) inherits from a distant cousin the title of Earl and a house and estate in an English village. Although he is initially reluctant, his fiancé (Decker) encourages him to accept it, after she hears how much the estate is worth. When he arrives in England with his two buddies (Pertwee and Lloyd Jr.), he falls for the daughter (Middleton) of the owner of the neighbouring estate - but she is also engaged to be married.

Cast

*Peter Thompson as Joe Turner *

as Angela *

as Butch *

as Gloria *

as Slowburn *

Reginald Beckwith William Reginald Beckwith (2 November 190826 June 1965) was an English film and television actor, who made over one hundred film and television appearances in his career. He died of a heart attack aged 56. Beckwith was also a film critic and ...

as Kimp * Edward Chapman as Duke of Fontenham *

Richard Wattis Richard Wattis (25 February 1912 – 1 February 1975) was an English actor, co-starring in many popular British comedies of the 1950s and 1960s. Early life Richard Cameron Wattis was born on 25 February 1912 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, the ...

as Boone *

Guy Middleton Guy Middleton Powell (14 December 1906 – 30 July 1973), better known as Guy Middleton, was an English character actor, film character actor. Biography Guy Middleton was born in Hove, Sussex, and originally worked in the London Stock Exch ...

as Bertram *

Harry Locke Harry Locke (10 December 1913 – 7 September 1987) was an English character actor. He was born and died in London. He married Joan Cowderoy in 1943 and Cordelia Sewell in 1952. He was a good friend of the poet Dylan Thomas. Their friendship in ...

as Clayton *

Alan Gifford Alan Gifford (born John Lennox; March 11, 1911 – March 20, 1989) was an American-born actor from Taunton, Massachusetts, who worked mainly in the UK, where he died in Blairgowrie, Scotland at age 78. Known best for his role in '' 2001: A ...

as Col. M'Gurk * Joanna Gay as Mabel *

Jennifer Jayne Jennifer Jayne (14 November 1931 – 23 April 2006) was an English film and television actress born in Yorkshire to theatrical parents. Born Jennifer Jayne Jones, she adopted her stage name of Jennifer Jayne to avoid confusion with the Holly ...

as Enid * Patrick Connor as Orderly * George Woodbridge as Landlord * Alice Bowes as Shopkeeper * Stewart Mitchell as Sentry * John McLaren as Corporal *

as Nightclub Manager * George Hilsdon as Alf Lewis * Aileen Lewis as Dancer in Nightclub

Critical reception

In the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in May 1923 by J ...

'', David Parkinson wrote "What few bright moments there are come from the late Jon Pertwee, who, fittingly, made his film debut in ''

A Yank at Oxford ''A Yank at Oxford'' is a 1938 comedy-drama film directed by Jack Conway and starring Robert Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan, Vivien Leigh and Edmund Gwenn. The screenplay was written by John Monk Saunders and Leon Gordon. The ...

'', and Harold Lloyd Jr, the son of the silent screen legend."

References

External links

* 1955 films 1955 comedy films British comedy films Films directed by Gordon Parry Films based on British novels Films shot at Beaconsfield Studios 1950s English-language films 1950s British films {{1950s-UK-comedy-film-stub