Village of Daughters is a 1962 British comedy film directed by George Pollock and starring Eric Sykes, Scilla Gabel, John Le Mesurier, Grégoire Aslan, Graham Stark, and Warren Mitchell.[1]

Village of Daughters
Directed byGeorge Pollock
Written byDavid Pursall
Produced byGeorge H. Brown
Starring
CinematographyGeoffrey Faithfull
Edited byTristam Cones
Music byRon Goodwin
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Release date
  • 13 March 1962 (1962-03-13)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

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Herbert Harris is a poor traveling salesman who is forced off the bus at a remote Italian village because he has no more money for the fare. There, he finds many single and attractive women who all pursue him madly. Unbeknownst to him, the villagers have a dilemma. Antonio is a wealthy businessman in London who, in accordance with his father's wish, has decided to marry a woman from his ancestral village. He writes to the mayor and asks him to choose. The mayor wants to select his daughter Annunziata, but the other villagers object. The village priest recommends that they leave the matter in the hands of God and let the first visitor to the village be the one to make the decision. That turns out to be Herbert.

Cast

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Reception

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Box office

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According to MGM records, the film made a loss of $268,000.[2]

Critical

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The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "The promising comedy idea degenerates into predictable farce of the hit-and-miss kind – with the accent on the comely misses. The cast, encouraged to overact, indulge themselves enthusiastically. By contrast the familiar TV image of Eric Sykes ... seems positively restrained and by no means unamusing. Yet for all its lack of discipline and indeed comic skill, the film exercises a kind of cheerful charm which at least makes a pleasant change from the ruthless knowingness of so much contemporary British screen comedy."[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Village of Daughters". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  2. ^ The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. ^ "Village of Daughters". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 29 (336): 55. 1 January 1962 – via ProQuest.
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