Lady Godiva Rides Again

Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951)

THE COMEDY SIDE OF A BATHING BEAUTY CONTEST!

Marjory Clark wins a competition in her Midland town and finds herself in a Festival of Britain procession as Lady Godiva - though not in the buff. This leads by way of a suspect beauty competition to the show-business world of London. But it could be a slippery slope for simple home-town Marge.

Date of release
1951-10-25
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (10)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Frank Launder

Casting

Interesting facts

Lady Godiva Rides Again is a 1951 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder and starring Pauline Stroud, George Cole and Bernadette O'Farrell. It was written by Launder and Val Valentine.

Production

The film was originally to be called Beauty Queen.

It was inspired by the Miss Kent 1950 beauty competition held at Leas Cliff Hall in Kent. Frank Launder, joint producer of the film with Leslie Gilliatt, was one of the judges in the competition. The filmmakers reportedly tested over 500 women to play the lead role including Joan Collins and Audrey Hepburn, who was judged too thin.

The actor chosen was Pauline Stroud. Her only previous film experience was as Vera-Ellen's stand-in in Happy Go Lovely (1951). Collins was given a bit part. The movie was the film debut of Anne Heywood, then known as Violet Pretty, who had won a number of beauty contests.

It was the first time John McCallum, who was Australian, played an Australian in a British film. Kay Kendall was cast as Stroud's sister after Launder saw her in a BBC play; the film helped revive Kendall's career after London Town.

Filming took place in June–July 1951. The production filmed on location in Folkestone, Kent. The Leas Cliff Hall was used as the location for the beauty competition, and The Metropole was the setting for the seaside hotel hosting the Fascination Soap Pageant. Folkestone West station features in the film for the railway scenes where Marjorie Clark arrives and meets Dolores August and her consorts, Larry and Vic.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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