Laughter in Paradise (1951)

Please don't spend money on this.

A Masterpiece!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A nice sly comedy that has similarities to Brewsters Millions. When Henry Russell (Hugh Griffiths) dies, known during his lifetime as a practical joker, he sets his beneficiaries a task that they must achieve before they can gain a share of their inheritance of £50,000. The tasks are related to some character weakness.Alastair Sim who writes thrashy crime stories, long term engaged to Joyce Grenfell has to get himself arrested and spend 28 days in jail. George Cole a hapless and bullied bank clerk as to stick up the bank that he works for.Fay Compton has to work as a maid to the curmudgeonly John Laurie without getting fired. The caddish Guy Middleton has to marry the first single woman he meets.Sim and Cole have the funniest escapades, Middleton passes over a young Audrey Hepburn to pursue the second eligible woman he encounters. The characters discover something about themselves while pursuing their tasks, it is a nice bit of light whimsy.

This classic of comedy and drama stars Alastair Sim, the peerless character comedian, and Fay Compton, a versatile stage actor of considerable range. The Laughter coming from Paradise emanates from a recently deceased eccentric (madcap Hugh Griffith) who follows the efforts of his four competitive heirs, for all of whom he has set different but embarrassing tasks to perform to qualify for an inheritance. Alastair Sim and Fay Compton have the choicer roles. Alastair Sim's ludicrous dilemma leads into a bravura comic performance. His bewildered and peeved fiancée is played by the exceptional Joyce Grenfell. Fay Compton's unsympathetic character becomes an occasion for exquisite acting in this film. Young George Cole, one of Mr & Mrs Sim's real-life protégés, handled comedy nearly as deftly as the master, and Cole is still appearing in films 75 years after his celluloid debut. Cole's role as a sincere but insecure lad is the polar opposite of sly and suave Guy Middleton, the fourth of a quartet of prospective heirs. Kudos to supporting players Ernest Thesiger and Eleanor Summerfield. Audrey Hepburn made her English-language movie debut in this film as a cigarette girl in a supper club, and Anthony Steel, on the brink of becoming a star hunk, had a larger and romantic role. Laugher in Paradise defies genre. It offers character studies, by turn hilarious and poignant. An unqualified 10 from this fan

Hugh Griffith, a terribly rich prankster, dies and splits his fortune up between four of his relatives on the condition that they fulfill certain obligations. In general, they must disclose the elements of the will to no one. And then there are specific requirements for each beneficiary.Fay Compton, Griffith's cousin, is a prune-like, bitter woman who dominates her friends and excoriates her maid for slight infractions. Her job is to find work as a maid for one week without being fired. She winds up in the household of the cantankerous, bossy, hypochondriac John Laurie, who does a fine number on the fast-talking sadist. He was the Scottish farmer in "The 39 Steps" who asked, "Do ye eat the herring?" George Cole is the mousy bank teller who must don a mask and pretend to hold up a bank with a water pistol.Guy Middleton is the picaresque moocher and ladies' man who must marry the first woman he talks to after the reading of the will is complete.Alistair Sim, the survivor-in-chief, is a respectable retired Army captain who writes Mickey Spillane novels under various noms de plume in order to preserve his dignity. His job is to commit a crime that causes him to spend 28 days in prison.All four of the beneficiaries undergo complications of one sort or another. Some are funnier than others. Cole earns respect by accident at his bank. Compton's story is meant to be heartwarming. Middleton ends up the victim of a plot himself. All of them learn something about life and about themselves, and find their situations improved, despite the final prank of the great prankster.Sim's story is the funniest and he handles the comedy flawlessly. Like Charles Laughton in that O. Henry story, he can't seem to get himself into jail. His attempt at shop lifting is foiled when the expensive item he steals is stolen from him by pickpockets. The most amusing scene in the film is Sim's trial for breaking a window and bopping a cop with his umbrella. The magistrate turns out to be a friend of his and is reluctant to prosecute him. But Sim prods him mercilessly and offers no defense. Very well, he gets 14 days in the slams. That's not enough. He needs 28 days. So he calls his friend a pompous ass. The sympathetic magistrate becomes insulted and adds another 7 days. That's still only 21 -- not yet enough. Sim affirms his insult and adds that the judge isn't fit to conduct a bus let alone a courtroom trial. Boiled down like this, it probably sounds less amusing that it appears on screen.It's not hilarious. It's not a masterpiece of the sort that Ealing Studios were turning out in the 1950s. It shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as a side-splitting comedy like "The L_________s." But you'll find it diverting.

Any film with Alastair Sim is worth watching, but this must rank as one of his best. Here he really displays his comic genius; his scenes can rightly be described as a masterclass in the art of comedy. Not before time, this has now become available on DVD, although, as yet, only part of a box set. Since Alastair Sim appears in the other films offered, this is not a great drawback. The other main characters in the film are also very good, particularly Fay Compton, and the supporting roles are filled well, with the always reliable Joyce Grenfell giving great satisfaction. The plot, too, is a cut above the usual, and it all adds up to a very satisfying experience, and one which I have watched many times, and hopefully will watch many more times.