Miss MacTaggart Won't Lie Down explained

Miss MacTaggart Won't Lie Down
Director:Francis Searle
Producer:Francis Searle
Screenplay:Elwyn Ambrose
Music:Peter Jeffries
Starring:Barbara Mullen
Cinematography:Terry Maher
Studio:Chairene Productions
Runtime:28 minutes
Country:United Kingdom
Language:English

Miss MacTaggart Won't Lie Down is a 1966 British short comedy film directed by Francis Searle and starring Barbara Mullen.[1]

Plot

Miss MacTaggart returns to her home village of Drumlochie after taking a trip to Glasgow. The locals are very surprised to see her, because they recently buried her. Miss MacTaggart explains that it must have been her twin sister. But Miss MacTaggart is now "deceased" and in Scottish law a death certifcate cannot be revoked. She goes on a one-person crimewave in the hope that her arrest and prosecution might require the authorities to declare her alive again.

Cast

Production

The film was part of a series of 30-minute films Searle termed "screen miniatures" which he made 1966–74.[2]

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "This 'Screen Miniature' seems designed solely as a vehicle for Barbara Mullen, but even admirers of her blend of practical wisdom and sly, folksy, humour may find it all laid on a little thickly. Not content with stealing a royal tiara, playing the bagpipes under a local dignitary's window in the middle of the night, and leaving a haggis disguised as a bomb in the House of Commons, Miss MacTaggart even troubles the Prime Minister ('How's the family?') with her problem. In the end she leaves happy, mouthing the word 'ombudsman', which, she is informed, is a Norwegian word meaning a panacea for all bureaucratic ills. There must be better ways of making the point."[3]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Miss MacTaggart Won't Lie Down . 10 November 2023 . British Film Institute Collections Search.
  2. Mayne . Laura . March 2018 . An Uncompetitive Cinema: The British Fiction Short Film in the 1960s . . 38 . 1 . 116–131. 10.1080/01439685.2017.1300000 .
  3. 1 January 1967. Miss MacTaggart Won't Lie Down. Monthly Film Bulletin. 34. 396. 111. . ProQuest.