the audience applauded

Good start, but then it gets ruined

A different way of telling a story

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

My favourite scenes? At their Brighton hotel (Joyce Grenfell is wonderful) and when Rosalind plays her two numbers on the trumpet! One solitary scene adds so much to this movie, and that is towards the end when the elderly man who loves Darracqs speaks to Alan (without first having been introduced!).

GENEVIEVE is an early car race comedy that precedes all of those American films like THE LOVE BUG and CANNONBALL RUN by many years. Okay, so this is a bit more quaint and genteel - it's an old-fashioned British comedy after all - but it still contains the same kind of knockabout desperate comedy that was the highlight of this particular sub-genre.There are only two cars in this film but they're both delightfully old-fashioned vehicles which are essentially an engine, a wheel, and a chair on a chassis. John Gregson and Kenneth More are the rival racers, although both come off quite badly: Gregson is a bit staid and boring, and More a bit too over the top and annoying. The gorgeous women accompanying them, Dinah Sheridan and Kay Kendall, are quite fantastic and the best thing about the film in my opinion.GENEVIEVE has a bit of an overlong running time and drags out in places, particularly in the early scenes which have no sense of drive or excitement. However, it gets better as it goes along, with some amusing sequences involving the various characters met en route, and it builds to the kind of frenetic, accident-prone action climax familiar from the later movies in this genre; the last half an hour is a delight. No classic then, but it did help to pave the way for what was to come.

Ambrose Claverhouse is the archetypal Kenneth More part.He's like Jeremy Clarkson without the malice.A 30 - something fairly innocent little boy obsessed with sex and motor - cars in no particular order.Some people have taken exception to the fact that he and his pals are quite posh,well,yes he's middle class,but his twin obsessions are shared by many working class blokes.Perhaps it's all right for Darren from Dagenham to be a petrolhead ladies man but not Charles from Chelsea - but that's the Brits for you ,most of us are snobs of one kind or the other. Driving back from Brighton last weekend I got caught up in the last stages of the Veteran Car Club Rally near the "Black Lion" at Patcham and in a Proustian moment the sweet,silly and ultimately rather sad memories of "Genevieve" swept over me so completely I had to pull up at the side of the road. It is a completely frivolous movie that nobody thought for a moment was going to be any more than a colourful bit of froth to brighten the lives of England's austerity - blighted movielovers. But somehow the basic good nature and decentness of Messrs More and Gregson,the determination and spirit of Mesdames Sheridan and Kendal combined to create an alchemy that spelled gold at the 1955 Box Office and created a legend that has lasted over half a century. Perhaps not appealing to 21st century eyes for it's unfailing cheeriness and good humour,there is not an ounce of meanness or cynicism in it. Clearly such innocence cannot be allowed to have ever existed. Well,I'm here to tell you it did. In real life the VCC Rally is one way,London to Brighton.For the movie Mr More and Mr Gregson turned the return journey into a race with,ultimately,"Genevieve" herself as the prize.In one of the great scenes in British cinema Mr Gregson within sight of the finishing line in "Genevieve" is hailed by an elderly gentleman who proceeds to tell him how he courted his wife fifty years earlier in just such a car. Mr Arthur Wontner only has a few lines but his old - time charm and courtesy are absolutely captivating.Mr Gregson listens patiently to his reminiscences as Mr More goes driving gaily past apparently to win the race but in fact he gets stuck in the tramlines and is whisked away at the last second,the prize slipping from his unbelieving hands. Certainly the world has changed since this picture was made.I'll leave it to you to decide whether it is for the better or not.

I usually find that British films of this vintage don't stand up too well - indeed in some cases they fell down even on release - but this is an exception. It's not too difficult too imagine how fresh it must have seemed back in the early fifties to palates jaded by war and austerity and the social history alone is worth the price of admission, for example John Gregson's barrister who has just over one hundred pounds in the bank yet lives in a delightful mews flat. William Rose's screenplay manages to wring sufficient changes on the rapidly changing fortunes in the race to the line to keep us interested and there's a nice contrast between the English Rose of Dinah Sheridan and the sophistication of Kay Kendall. Kenny More turns in his patented bounder with charm and though John Gregson could only do wooden he is not too hard to take in this company. A pleasant diversion.