Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

People are voting emotionally.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Don't Take It To Heart! is a most enjoyable outing. Greene is pleasant enough as the hero, Patricia Medina (using her charming natural voice instead of that mid-Atlantic accent she adopted for her Hollywood films) makes a spirited heroine. But the real joys of the film lie in that wonderful gallery of British eccentrics that participate in the main plot and help prop up the secondary romance. Some of my favorites are Claude Dampier as an obliging cretin, Edward Rigby as a gladly ill-used servant who has the film's keynote speech and trips a shuffling fantastic through endless halls to answer the telephone, Moore Marriott who is more subdued than his usual totally irascible but gladly plays up to the not overbright Loopy, Alfred Drayton as the rights-conscious Pike, Ronald Squire as a typically imbecilic figure of the landed gentry who mistakes "Auld Lang Syne" for the national anthem, Harry Fowler who is so young here but just as cheeky, and of course Brefni O'Rorke who can dance such a treat when the credits are down.Expectedly, Dell's direction is as imaginative as his script is sprightly. In the opening scenes it seems as if the camera is almost constantly on the move. The special effects are likewise faultless. And the sets, doubtless made over from a real castle, are as impressively vast as picturesque. Eric Cross, later to work with Dell on The Dark Man, provides his usual superlative camerawork.

Peter Hayward (Richard Greene) leads the villagers in the town of Chaunduyt (pronounced "Condwit") against a landowner, Mr Pike (Alfred Drayton), who refuses to allow animals onto his land and wants to plough up the cricket pitch. Peter is helped by a ghost (Richard Bird) who has been released from the walls of a stately home after it has been hit by a German bomb. Hey, it might be a British bomb, after all, we now know that in every war it seems traditional to kill your own troops in some way. The film climaxes with a court scene and a surprise revelation.I was hoping for a good ghost story but it is far from that. Unfortunately, this is another example of British silliness. The ghost as played by Richard Bird is hardly in the film and when he does appear, he is portrayed as a friendly buffoon. Another buffoon who I suspect was meant to court sympathy was the "Butler" as portrayed by Edward Rigby. We have tedious sections at the beginning of the film where every time he moves around the stately home, he is accompanied by comedy music. I found him irritating. There are some funny touches, eg, the fact that everyone in the village has the same name due to inbreeding throughout the years (a hot topic especially with the royal family) and this film gives us the original dilemma over the pronunciation of the surname "Bucket"...... or is that "Bouquet"? If you like silly British nonsense, then you will enjoy this film. It's not a catastrophe but it is a disappointment.

This picture deserves more publicity. It is a charming British comedy with a great sense of goofiness that the Brits used to do so well.In it, our hero Richard Greene displays the wonderful charm we remember so well from his subsequent "Robin Hood" TV series. As the reluctant Lord (who secretly yearns for commoner vices), Brefni O'Rorke is delightfully wise, subtle, and droll. Even Ivor Barnard, in his brief cameo, is memorable as a French refugee bus driver. (Apparently, he apprenticed in a Parisian taxi.) And scattered throughout the film are many funny bits (such as rival lawyers continually attempting to one-up each other with earlier and more obscure citations.) Indeed, my only disappointment was over the ghost's role. More could have been done with him. Since sheep have a crucial role in the picture, for example, perhaps, as a sight gag, a ghostly encounter might have turned some black ones white. Also, the ghost's fate should somehow have been intertwined with that of the obnoxious plaintiff, who, after the trial, just seems to abruptly disappear, as if forgotten.

Chaunduyt is rather like Brigadoon, locked in time centuries before. A bomb hits the castle and manages to awake a ghost, who is rather a jolly old soul. Word gets out about the ghost, and other findings, and suddenly the manor is open to tourists, and newcomers flood Chaunduyt, not all with good intentions. A young professor is most interested in some ancient manuscripts - and the current Earl's daughter - but he ends up getting much more involved, in a fight with the villagers, aided by the ghost, over some developers who want to bring Chaunduyt a little more up to date.Fairly amusing. 6/10