Laughter in Paradise

In his will, notorious practical joker Henry Russell leaves £50,000 to each of his four surviving relatives, provided they first perform prescribed tasks that are completely contrary to their natures.

Law-abiding retired army officer Deniston Russell, who writes lurid crime novels under several pen names, has a week to get himself arrested and jailed for exactly 28 days. Difficult, snobbish Agnes Russell has to find employment as a domestic servant in a middle-class home, again within a week, and keep her position for a month. Simon Russell, a penniless womanising con man, has to marry the first single woman he speaks to. Timid Herbert Russell has to hold up the bank manager he works for in his office, using a mask and a toy pistol, and obtain the bank keys for two minutes.

Deniston is thwarted repeatedly in his attempts, but finally manages to complete his task by smashing a shop window and assaulting a policeman. It costs him his fiancée Elizabeth when he is brought up before the magistrate, Elizabeth's father, but his secretary Sheila reveals her love for him and promises to stand by him.

Agnes finds work with the irascible, demanding Gordon Webb. When Gordon sacks her, she begs to stay for a month, finally offering to pay him £1000. He does change his mind, if only for the enjoyment of tormenting her further. He also hires a private detective, Roger Godfrey, to find out what she is up to. Roger falls in love with Gordon's long-suffering daughter Joan, who is unwilling to marry him as her father depends on her. After Agnes persuades the girl to seize the chance of happiness, Gordon first sacks her and then calls round to take her out to dinner.

Though the first single woman Simon speaks to is Frieda, a cigarette girl in a club he frequents, being in search of richer prey he breaks his promise. An attractive but suspiciously available young woman called Lucille scoops him up and, once they are married, reveals that she is the penniless niece of his butler, in whom he unwisely confided.

When Herbert finally gathers the nerve to go through with his assignment, he inadvertently foils an actual robbery and becomes a hero, plastered across the front pages of the press. He is rewarded with a branch managership. Susan, a fellow bank employee, is proud and happy to be his girl.

Then the executor gathers the four heirs together and informs them that there is in fact no money left. The whole exercise was Henry's last practical joke. Agnes, Deniston and Herbert burst into laughter. Simon is annoyed at first, until he looks out of the window at his conniving and equally unscrupulous wife, who is waiting for him with a bottle of champagne. Then he too joins in the merriment.

{{div col}}

• Alastair Sim as Deniston Russell
• Fay Compton as Agnes Russell
• Guy Middleton as Simon Russell
• George Cole as Herbert Russell
• Hugh Griffith as Henry Russell
• Ernest Thesiger as Endicott, Henry's executor
• Beatrice Campbell as Lucille Grayson
• Mackenzie Ward as Benson, Simon's butler
• Joyce Grenfell as Elizabeth Robson
• A. E. Matthews as Sir Charles Robson
• John Laurie as Gordon Webb
• Veronica Hurst as Joan Webb
• Anthony Steel as Roger Godfrey
• Eleanor Summerfield as Sheila Wilcott
• Charlotte Mitchell as Ethel, Agnes's maid
• Leslie Dwyer as Police station sergeant
• Colin Gordon as Police station constable
• Ronald Adam as Wagstaffe, the bank manager
• Michael Pertwee as Stewart, a bank employee
• Mary Germaine as Susan Heath
• Audrey Hepburn as Frieda, a cigarette girl
• Noel Howlett as Clerk of the Court
• Martin Boddey as store detective
• Arthur Howard as passenger in train with Herbert (uncredited)

{{div col end}}

Eleanor Summerfield and Noel Howlett both appeared, although in different roles, in the 1970 remake Some Will, Some Won't.

This was Hepburn's first professional appearance on film (save for a brief role in a 1948 Dutch film entitled Dutch in Seven Lessons and a bit part in 1951's One Wild Oat), with her two scenes as a cigarette girl totalling 43 seconds. They were recreated by Jennifer Love Hewitt in the 2000 biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story. Anthony Steel also has a small role.{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-emasculation-of-anthony-steel-a-cold-streak-saga/|title=The Emasculation of Anthony Steel: A Cold Streak Saga

|date=September 23, 2020}} The film's editor Giulio Zampi would go on to produce the 1970 remake Some Will, Some Won't.

Laughter in Paradise was the fourth most popular film at the British box-office in 1951.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63397098 |title=Vivien Leigh Actress of the Year. |newspaper=Townsville Daily Bulletin |location=Qld. |date=29 December 1951 |accessdate=24 April 2012 |page=1 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/Screen_Volume_32_Issue_3/page/n17|magazine=Screen|page=258|volume=32|issue=3|title=The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry|first=Janet|last=Thumim}}

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "As a whole, although the script contains some genuinely amusing ideas, neither script writers nor director have achieved the pace, invention and style of high comedy. The flatness of the handling is particularly apparent in the two weakest episodes, which are only saved from banality by being cut into short scenes, thanks to the simultaneous narrative method. Many of the players are given opportunities only for conventional performances of the caricature type, such as Joyce Grenfell's schoolgirlish, overdone A.T.S. officer, Ronald Adam's pompous bank manager, and Leslie Dwyer's comic police sergeant. But the film owes most of its humour to two good performances: George Cole is restrained and amusing as the bank clerk; Alistair Sim is rich, outsize and comic as the writer."{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1951 |title=Laughter in Paradise |volume=18 |issue=204 |pages=275 |id={{ProQuest|1305814288}} |magazine=The Monthly Film Bulletin}}

The New York Times in November 1951 called the film a "merely pleasant, not especially surprising, comedy".{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A05E2DB103DEF3BBC4A52DFB767838A649EDE|title=Laughter in Paradise, British Import With Alastair Sim, at 60th St. Trans-Lux|work=The New York Times|date=12 November 1951|access-date=26 August 2019}}

In modern reviews, the Radio Times, David Parkinson gave the film four out of five stars, and praised the "fantastic performance of Alastair Sim as the henpecked thriller writer", adding, "the scene in which he tries to shoplift is one of the funniest in a career overladen with choice comic moments."{{cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/film/mgvnz/laughter-in-paradise|title=Laughter in Paradise|author=David Parkinson|work=Radio Times}}

Britmovie called the film "a sure-fire British comedy that's sprightly execution doesn’t leave many dull moments."{{cite web|url=http://www.britmovie.co.uk/films/Laughter-in-Paradise_1951|title=Laughter in Paradise|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129014646/http://www.britmovie.co.uk/films/Laughter-in-Paradise_1951|archivedate=29 November 2014}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0043727|title=Laughter in Paradise}}
• [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/591011/index.html Modern Review] (Undated) at screenonline
• [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/media/mfb/1007275/index.html Contemporaneous Review] (June, 1951) at screenonline

{{Mario Zampi}}

Category:1951 films

Category:1951 comedy films

Category:British comedy films

Category:British black-and-white films

Category:Films shot at Associated British Studios

Category:Films directed by Mario Zampi

Category:Films set in England

Category:Films set in London

Category:1950s English-language films

Category:1950s British films

Category:Films scored by Stanley Black