I Watch Films: Miranda

 

Miranda (1948)

Dr Paul Martin (Griffith Jones) leaves London for Cornwall for a week’s holiday; his wife Clare (Googie Withers), not a fan of fishing, stays behind after a cordial disagreement. Out on a boat Miranda (Glynis Johns), a mermaid, pulls him in to the sea and takes him to an underwater cavern. She plans to keep him there until he agrees to take her to London. Improvising frantically he orders extra-long dresses from his wife’s tailor and a bath chair to disguise her tail. He lets his wife know that he’s bringing a patient back to stay with them. Talking to her friend Isobel Clare assumes Miranda is an elderly invalid and is somewhat taken aback when she’s revealed to be young and attractive.

Young, attractive, a little naïve and fascinating! Isobel’s fiancé Nigel, an artist, is fascinated in her, firstly as a model, then more romantically. The Martins' chauffeur Charles (David Tomlinson), who is informally attached to their maid Betty, also falls for Miranda, in part because she treats servants like anyone else and also her general seductive nature. Meanwhile Clare suspects something is going on that Paul isn’t telling her; of course this is correct but it’s not the affair she thinks it is.

Miranda’s not just there to flirt with men though. Paul gets the eccentric Nurse Carey (Margaret Rutherford) to be her companion; Nurse Carey is delighted to discover that mermaids are real and takes her out on visits, some of which are comic interludes (the seals at the zoo etc), some of which are discreet modelling sessions with Nigel. She also has a delight in singing* going to the opera at Covent Garden.

This ends in classic fashion, with the secret being revealed and the romantic rivals all coming together at the Martins’ flat on the same evening – Miranda’s last. This film is at it’s best with the jokes – Miranda scandalising Nurse Carey at a whelk stall, Betty noting that she doesn’t have any underpants in her luggage, the farcical efforts of Nigel and Charles to court her. So many delightful details, as when Miranda mentions various seaside places she or her relatives have visited. When it tries to be a little more serious it doesn’t quite work. Paul’s predicament in the cave, Nigel and Isobel; Charles and Betty, the way their relationships collapse are unconvincing. It’s good-hearted and fluffy, once the secrets are revealed everyone can repair the damage done. Enjoyable without being especially clever.

Watch This: Superior 1940s mermaid comedy
Don’t Watch This: Can’t decide it it’s a weightless piece of fluff or has something real to say

* Unfortunately, perhaps because of the awkward position Glynis Johns has to sit in, the powerful operatic singing voice they dub her with is unconvincing.