Genevieve (1953) - film review

Barrister Alan McKim has two passions in his life – his devoted wife Wendy and his 1904 Darracq roadster, Genevieve – and it isn’t obvious which he loves most.  Every year, Alan enters Genevieve in the London to Brighton rally, and, each year, Wendy agrees to accompany him.  Alan’s friend Ambrose Claverhouse also enters the rally, in his 1904 Spyker.  Ambrose gets to Brighton without any difficulty, aided by his new girlfriend Rosalind Peters, but Alan’s car breaks down.  Alan’s mood is not improved when he begins to suspect that, before she married him, Wendy had an affair with Ambrose.  In a fit of pique, he declares that Genevieve is a much better car than his friend’s Spyker and bets £100 that he can make the return journey to London faster than Ambrose...

Genevieve is the most quintessential of British comedies, a quaint satire in which an Englishman’s love of his motorcar precedes any feelings he may have for a woman.  Whilst the film feels a little dated (and much more slowly paced than other films featuring a car race), it still has great entertainment value, thanks mainly to the ebullient performances from its four lead actors, headed by Kenneth More, one of the most highly regarded British actors at the time.  Joyce Grenfell, the doyenne of British comedy, is a delight in her all too brief cameo appearance. 

The film was directed by Henry Cornelius, who is is probably best known for his classic Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico (1949).  Cornelius began his career working as an assistant editor on René Clair’s The Ghost Goes West (1935) and, in the 1940s, he was a screenwriter and associate producer at Ealing on such films as Hue and Cry (1947).  He directed just five films before his premature death in 1958, and one of the best of these is his 1953 hit Genevieve.

The film’s vibrant colour photography dispels the myth that England in the 1950s was remorselessly drab – going by this film, this decade was just as hard on the eyes as the psychedelic sixties.  Larry Adler provided the film’s cheery but somewhat repetitive harmonica score.  Genevieve is vintage film comedy with a vintage cast, which has a particular appeal for any enthusiast of vintage cars.

© James Travers 2008

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