| Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter | |
| Director: | Saul Swimmer |
| Cinematography: | Jack Hildyard |
| Editing: | Tristam Cones |
| Studio: | Ivorygate Films |
| Distributor: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Runtime: | 95 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter is a 1968 British musical comedy film directed by Saul Swimmer and starring Peter Noone.[1] [2] The film showcases the British rock band Herman's Hermits, and is their second and final feature film, following Hold On! in 1966. The group sings nine songs including the title track and the romantic hit song "There's a Kind of Hush".[3]
Herman Tulley inherits a prize greyhound called Mrs. Brown and aims to race the dog and win the derby in London. Herman and his group, The Hermits, play gigs to raise money for the race entry fees. After Mrs. Brown wins the preliminaries in Manchester, The Hermits travel to London for the big race. However, they must again raise money to enter their greyhound, so they make arrangements for more concerts and also take up temporary employment at G.G. Brown's fruit market. During this time, Herman falls for Judy, an aspiring young model who is the Browns' daughter, but Herman's neighborhood friend Tulip has her sights set on him. Mrs. Brown wins the London race, but is later lost by Herman after he ties her to a baggage cart at a busy railway station. She eventually is found by a street entertainer and returned and gives birth to a "daughter." Judy does modeling in Rome. Herman winds up moving on with the hint of a possible relationship with Tulip.
It was shot at Shepperton Studios and on location around London and Manchester, including King's Cross Station, Covent Garden, St Katharine Docks and the Great West Road. The greyhound racing scenes were shot at the Catford Stadium and White City Stadium. The film's sets were designed by the art director George Provis.
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Another mongrel child born out of English neo-realism (clean linen waving like flags from the washing lines of picturesque northern slums) and the myth of a trendy London in which all the younger people are connected with a colour supplement and dressed in last year's gear. Although Herman and his Hermits rush eagerly around England's principal tourist attractions and everyone involved displays an indomitable (and presumably exportable) cheeriness, the message that emerges is a sadly negative one: the world is for the young, or as the heroine puts it, "One only has a few super years". It is characteristic of the film's ephemeral and pathetically swinging world that when Judy tells Herman that she's going to Rome (via St. Pancras, incidentally) for six weeks, he should automatically assume "It's all over, then"."[4]
In DVD Talk, Bill Gibron wrote "It's almost impossible to embrace this movie as well made and amusing. It is an entertaining antique, but that's about it."[5]
In The Spinning Image, Graeme Clark described the film as "something of an improvement on the Hermits' previous movie, Hold On!...The songs are better...what you're left with is an artefact that was not intended to last down the ages, but has anyway."[6]