Marjorie Clark, a working-class girl from an industrial Midlands town, becomes a local celebrity when she is chosen to play Lady Godiva in a local pageant. Much against the wishes of her puritanical old father and her possessive boyfriend Johnny she enters a beauty contest, and accidentally wins after the organiser's attempt to rig the contest in favour of his girlfriend misfires. Marjorie becomes a national celebrity and for a time enjoys success as a model, but has less success when she tries to conquer the world of showbiz despite having very little talent for acting, singing or dancing.
In Britain the film was known as "Lady Godiva Rides Again", but was released in the United States as "Bikini Baby", in a particularly dishonest piece of marketing. The poster designed for the American market proclaimed in huge letters "starring Diana Dors" accompanied by a picture of Dors in a bikini. Beneath, in smaller letters, it mentioned Kay Kendall and Stanley Holloway, and "dozens of beauty queens and artists' models!", but made no mention of the film's actual leading lady Pauline Stroud, who plays Marjorie. Contrary to the impression given by the poster, Dors plays a secondary character who appears only in a couple of scenes.
The marketing may have been dishonest, but I can see why it was done. Dors, oozing sex appeal and charisma from every pore, steals every scene she is in. Her character Dolores August- she who should have won the contest but didn't- is the sort of girl for whom the expression "fur coat and no knickers" could have been invented. She will drop her knickers for any man who might advance her career, and would sell her soul for a fur coat. It is no surprise that in Britain Dors became the leading sex symbol of the fifties. (Internationally her success was to be more limited).
Some films on the well-worn theme of "it's grim in showbiz" can be serious, even tragic, in tone, but this one is mainly a light-hearted comedy. There is a good deal of satire at the expense of the entertainment industry, and not just crooked beauty contests. The opening scene, showing Marjorie's home town on a rain-sodden Sunday afternoon, seems to be a parody of the then-popular "kitchen sink" social-realist genre, possibly inspired by one of the best-known films in that genre, Robert Hamer's "It Always Rains on Sunday". The "glamour school" which Marjorie attends seems to have been a dart aimed at Rank's "charm school", a training-ground for young actresses which concentrated more on looks and deportment than on acting ability. Dennis Price appears as Simon Abbott, a smoothly lecherous matinee idol who tries to get every girl he meets into bed with him. (Several real-life matinee idols might have recognised themselves in this portrayal). There is an amusing cameo from Alastair Sim as Hawtrey Mewington, an ageing, down-on-his-luck film producer, forever bemoaning the (alleged) fact that the once-great British film industry was being ruined by competition from television and Hollywood. (Memo to HM Government: Do more to support British cinema!)
Dors, Price and Sim are not the only big-name stars who appear in small roles. Holloway plays Marjorie's father and Kendall her sister. George Cole is Johnny, Sid James (not as big a star in 1951 as he was to become later) appears briefly as a sleazy impresario, and if you blink you might miss Dora Bryan and Googie Withers. Trevor Howard makes an uncredited as appearance as a theatre patron. This is, in fact, the sort of film in which all the small parts are played by big names and the only big part by a small name. Stroud never went on to become a major star, which does not really surprise me. She was pretty but lacked Dors's charisma, and on the evidence of this film lacked talent as well. (She also sounds too posh for a working-class Midlands girl, but is not alone in that. In the scenes set in the Midlands all the female characters speak with genteel RP accents and the male ones sound like Cockneys). The film as a whole, in fact, is quite amusing and provides us with an interesting look at British life in the early fifties. With a stronger actress in the lead, however, it could have been a lot better. 6/10
There are two strange coincidences about this film, both involving Dors. The contestants at the beauty contest include, besides Stroud and Dors, not only a teenage Joan Collins in her film debut but also a then-unknown model and actress named Ruth Ellis. In 1955 Ellis was to become famous, but sadly not for her acting or modelling. She was sentenced to death after shooting dead her abusive boyfriend, becoming the last woman to be executed in Britain. When a fictionalised version of Ellis's story, "Yield to the Night", was made soon afterwards, Dors, who had befriended Ellis during the making of "Lady Godiva Rides Again", was cast in the leading role.
In one scene there is a scuffle between Johnny and Abbott, who has cast his lustful eye on Marjorie, ending with Abbott falling into the river. As a result of the ensuing bad publicity, the film studio who have signed Marjorie up as a starlet sack her, invoking a "morality clause" in her contract. This closely parallels what was to happen to Dors during her ill-fated attempt to conquer Hollywood a few years later. A scuffle between her husband Dennis Hamilton and a photographer ended with several people falling into a swimming pool. As a result of the ensuing bad publicity, Dors's studio sacked her, invoking a "morality clause" in her contract.
In Britain the film was known as "Lady Godiva Rides Again", but was released in the United States as "Bikini Baby", in a particularly dishonest piece of marketing. The poster designed for the American market proclaimed in huge letters "starring Diana Dors" accompanied by a picture of Dors in a bikini. Beneath, in smaller letters, it mentioned Kay Kendall and Stanley Holloway, and "dozens of beauty queens and artists' models!", but made no mention of the film's actual leading lady Pauline Stroud, who plays Marjorie. Contrary to the impression given by the poster, Dors plays a secondary character who appears only in a couple of scenes.
The marketing may have been dishonest, but I can see why it was done. Dors, oozing sex appeal and charisma from every pore, steals every scene she is in. Her character Dolores August- she who should have won the contest but didn't- is the sort of girl for whom the expression "fur coat and no knickers" could have been invented. She will drop her knickers for any man who might advance her career, and would sell her soul for a fur coat. It is no surprise that in Britain Dors became the leading sex symbol of the fifties. (Internationally her success was to be more limited).
Some films on the well-worn theme of "it's grim in showbiz" can be serious, even tragic, in tone, but this one is mainly a light-hearted comedy. There is a good deal of satire at the expense of the entertainment industry, and not just crooked beauty contests. The opening scene, showing Marjorie's home town on a rain-sodden Sunday afternoon, seems to be a parody of the then-popular "kitchen sink" social-realist genre, possibly inspired by one of the best-known films in that genre, Robert Hamer's "It Always Rains on Sunday". The "glamour school" which Marjorie attends seems to have been a dart aimed at Rank's "charm school", a training-ground for young actresses which concentrated more on looks and deportment than on acting ability. Dennis Price appears as Simon Abbott, a smoothly lecherous matinee idol who tries to get every girl he meets into bed with him. (Several real-life matinee idols might have recognised themselves in this portrayal). There is an amusing cameo from Alastair Sim as Hawtrey Mewington, an ageing, down-on-his-luck film producer, forever bemoaning the (alleged) fact that the once-great British film industry was being ruined by competition from television and Hollywood. (Memo to HM Government: Do more to support British cinema!)
Dors, Price and Sim are not the only big-name stars who appear in small roles. Holloway plays Marjorie's father and Kendall her sister. George Cole is Johnny, Sid James (not as big a star in 1951 as he was to become later) appears briefly as a sleazy impresario, and if you blink you might miss Dora Bryan and Googie Withers. Trevor Howard makes an uncredited as appearance as a theatre patron. This is, in fact, the sort of film in which all the small parts are played by big names and the only big part by a small name. Stroud never went on to become a major star, which does not really surprise me. She was pretty but lacked Dors's charisma, and on the evidence of this film lacked talent as well. (She also sounds too posh for a working-class Midlands girl, but is not alone in that. In the scenes set in the Midlands all the female characters speak with genteel RP accents and the male ones sound like Cockneys). The film as a whole, in fact, is quite amusing and provides us with an interesting look at British life in the early fifties. With a stronger actress in the lead, however, it could have been a lot better. 6/10
There are two strange coincidences about this film, both involving Dors. The contestants at the beauty contest include, besides Stroud and Dors, not only a teenage Joan Collins in her film debut but also a then-unknown model and actress named Ruth Ellis. In 1955 Ellis was to become famous, but sadly not for her acting or modelling. She was sentenced to death after shooting dead her abusive boyfriend, becoming the last woman to be executed in Britain. When a fictionalised version of Ellis's story, "Yield to the Night", was made soon afterwards, Dors, who had befriended Ellis during the making of "Lady Godiva Rides Again", was cast in the leading role.
In one scene there is a scuffle between Johnny and Abbott, who has cast his lustful eye on Marjorie, ending with Abbott falling into the river. As a result of the ensuing bad publicity, the film studio who have signed Marjorie up as a starlet sack her, invoking a "morality clause" in her contract. This closely parallels what was to happen to Dors during her ill-fated attempt to conquer Hollywood a few years later. A scuffle between her husband Dennis Hamilton and a photographer ended with several people falling into a swimming pool. As a result of the ensuing bad publicity, Dors's studio sacked her, invoking a "morality clause" in her contract.