San Ferry Ann

San Ferry Ann is a short (55 minute) British silent film made in 1965, involving a motley collection of holidaymakers let loose on an unsuspecting Calais for the weekend. Amongst the crew are Mum (Joan Sims), dad (David Lodge), grandma (Lynne Carol - Martha Longhurst in Coronation Street) and grandad (Wilfred Brambell), who arrive in a Bedford CA caravan, whilst a pair of lovers, off for a romantic sojourn, are played by Rodney Bewes (by this time a Likely Lad) and Catherine Feller, pitching up in and old MG and never leaving the hotel. Two hitchhikers are wiggling Barbara Windsor and accident-prone Ronnie Stevens, who had played the drunk in Carry on Cruising three years previously. Other well-known faces to turn up include Warren Mitchell as a waiter, Fred Emney as a Frenchman with a comedy plaster-cast on this foot, Hugh Paddick, Ron Moody and the marvelous Graham Stark as a bemused Gendarme.

Plenty of stereotypical behaviour ensues; mum and dad get drunk, they can't read the signs nor speak the language, and are 'embarrassed Brits abroad' on the beach, whilst Ron Moody, as a former German soldier, forms an unlikely friendship with ex-Tommy Wilfred Brambell. Oh, and yes, there is an onion-seller in a beret on a bike and a smattering of sexy french girls, one of whom 'entices' Wilfred Brambell into her little war museum, very much under false pretences.......

At the very end of the film, we see our hitchhikers heading home to blighty. Barbara Windsor uses her obvious charms to thumb a lift in a passing Peugeot 404 (leaving her companion behind a hedge having a wee). He has the last laugh however, cadging a lift with a pretty girl in an MGB, passing the Peugeot with it's bonnet up.

Not a bad little film, perhaps a little long, but plenty of smiles along the way, if not many actual laugh-out-loud moments. There is much for the car enthusiast to savour, lots of French classics, not to mention the array of British motors that frequently crop up, and of course the British comic actors featured are always good value. My copy came as a triple DVD pack along with Simon Simon and A Home of your Own, both of which I will review in due course, all for £4.99 at our local branch of Works.