''Miss Pilgrim's Progress'' is a 1949 black-and-white
British comedy Throughout film, television, and radio, British comedy has become known for its consistently peculiar characters, plots, and settings, and has produced some of the most renowned comedians and characters in the world.
History
British comedy history ...
film by producer
Nat Cohen
Nat Cohen (23 December 1905 – 10 February 1988)William D. Rubinstein, et al (eds.''The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History'' Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p.171 was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of t ...
and director
Val Guest
Val Guest (born Valmond Maurice Grossman; 11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer (and later director) of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he direct ...
.
Plot
Laramie Pilgrim (Yolande Donlan) is an American exchange factory worker who trades places with an upper class British girl. After much adjusting to English country life, and with the various attendant culture clashes, Miss Pilgrim comes to the rescue of her new village and its exploitation by a local land developer.
Cast
*
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie (born Eric Alexander Rennie; 25 August 1909 – 10 June 1971) was a British film, television and stage actor, who had leading roles in a number of Hollywood films, including his portrayal of the space visitor Klaatu in the s ...
as Bob Thane
*
Yolande Donlan
Yolande Donlan (June 2, 1920December 30, 2014) was an American-British actress who worked extensively in the United Kingdom.
Early life and career
The daughter of James Donlan, a character actor in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood films of ...
as Laramie Pilgrim
*
Garry Marsh
Garry Marsh (21 June 1902 – 6 March 1981) was an English stage and film actor.
Born Leslie Marsh Gerahty in St Margarets, Surrey, his parents were George and Laura. His elder brothers were the author Digby George Gerahty and the journalist ...
as The Mayor
*
Emrys Jones as The Vicar
*
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 Mr Jenkins
*
Helena Pickard
Helena Pickard (13 October 1900 – 27 September 1959) was a British stage, film and television actress.
Career
Pickard was a prominent character actress in West End plays such as ''When We Are Married'' and ''Flare Path'' and also appea ...
as Mrs Jenkins
*
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 ...
as Postmaster
*Richard Littledale as Mr Thane
*
Bruce Belfrage
Bruce Belfrage (30 October 1900 – August 1974) was an English actor and BBC radio newsreader.Obituary in ''The Times'', ''Mr Bruce Belfrage'', 17 August 1974, p.14 He was casting director at the BBC between 1936 and 1939, and founded th ...
as Factory Manager
*
Valentine Dyall
Valentine Dyall (7 May 1908 – 24 June 1985) was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series '' Appointment with Fear'' ...
as Superintendent of Manuscripts
*
as Jonathon
*
Avril Angers
Florence Avril Angers (18 April 1918 – 9 November 2005) was an English stand-up comedian and actress. The ''Daily Telegraph'' described her as "one of the most zestful, charming and reliable character comediennes in the postwar London theat ...
as First Factory Girl
Uncredited:
*
Ivan Craig
Walter Ivan Sackville Craig (22 February 1912 – 7 March 1995) was a British (Scottish) actor, the son of Dr. Eric S. Craig and Dorothy Gertrude Meldrum.
Ivan Craig was born in Edinburgh. In 1940 he married Lilian May Davies, a fashion mo ...
as Town Planner
*
Arthur Hill as American Vice-Consul
*
Marianne Stone
Marianne Stone (23 August 1922 – 21 December 2009) was an English character actress. She performed in films from the early 1940s to the late 1980s, typically playing working class parts such as barmaids, secretaries and landladies. Stone appe ...
as Second Factory Girl
Production
Val Guest wrote the film as a vehicle for Yolande Dolan, who had been a sensation in London in ''Born Yesterday'' and whom he would later marry. The male lead was Michael Rennie, who Guest had given his first leading man part; Rennie returned from Hollywood to appear in it.
Reception
Guest says the film was "a big success" and let to Dolan and Rennie being reunited on ''
The Body Said No!
''The Body Said No!'' is a 1950 British crime comedy film directed by Val Guest and starring Michael Rennie, Yolande Donlan, and Hy Hazell. It was shot at Walton Studios near London and distributed by Eros Films.
Premise
In a British TV studio ...
''.
Critical reception
''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' gave the film two out of four stars, and wrote, "the script relies on the surefire technique of cultural differences for humor, with the English countryside providing a pleasant background."
External links
*
*
''Miss Pilgrim's Progress''at
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''Miss Pilgrim's Progress''at
BFI
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
References
1949 comedy films
1949 films
British comedy films
Films directed by Val Guest
British black-and-white films
Films scored by Ronald Hanmer
1940s English-language films
1940s British films
{{1940s-UK-comedy-film-stub