The Pleasure Garden

1953

38m

IMDb RATING

6.0/10

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Drama

Comedy

People quietly or mischievously pass the time in an overgrown garden full of statues, while a puritanical, funereal gentleman posts bills prohibiting all leisure activities.

Directors

James Broughton

Writers

James Broughton(writer by)

Stars

Lindsay Anderson

John Le Mesurier

Hattie Jacques

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Top cast

Michael-Angelico

Col. Gargoyle

Mrs. Albion

Miss Kellerman

Lady Ennui

Miss Wheeling

Bess

Aunt Minerva

Lord Ennui

Directors

James Broughton

Writers

James Broughton(writer by)

All cast & crew

Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

There's something quite surreal about this quirky short film from James Broughton. It's all centred around an overgrown London park where the part-time warden/undertaker "Col. Gargoyle" (John Le Mesurier) spends his entire time putting up signs telling people what to do and what not to do - all the while being largely ignored by the people who use the space. No playing, no dancing, no singing, no running - they are all disregarded as this most eclectic mix of folks do everything from ballet to canoodling. It's presented as if it were a silent film with little dialogue - though Jean Anderson's "That's the best funeral I've been to all day" does stick in the mind. Hattie Jacques features - flamboyantly using her scarf as a garment and a useful conduit to "free" those bent on some degree of intimacy amongst the overgrown rhododendrons. Le Mesurier seems to have found an uniquely punitive use for an abandoned animal cage for the worst miscreants and we slowly build to quite a fun denouement between the forces of good (fun) and bad (rules). At times it can come across as what might be considered "racy" and there is plenty of semi-operatic singing to keep it flowing but there's no doubt that it's very much of it's time, and now serves as little more than a curio that sees the charismatic dynamic between the husband and wife Jacques and Le Mesurier convene an ensemble of slapstick lightheartedness.

Geronimo196708 Feb, 2024