Publisher: CinemaSerf January 10, 2025
"Bruno" (David Niven) is your stereotypical Scottish entrepreneur. He is firm, canny and not prone to lavish behaviour. When his driver gives a lift to a visiting showgirl, and she arrives at the theatre where impoverished impresario "Frost" (Cesar Romero) is struggling to convince John Laurie not to repossess the scenery, the germ of an idea is formed. He thinks she is the rich man's girlfriend and so offers her the lead in the hope the she can get him to invest. Snag? Well she (Vera-Ellen) has never even met "Bruno", and when they eventually do he leaves her under the impression that he's some sort of skint newspaper man. The course of true love is not going to run smoothly for this couple, even when the millionaire does actually try to own up and help out - and the constabulary are called to investigate what she is certain is a dodgy cheque! Complemented by some amiable song and dance numbers that show off her skills and remind us of just what Edinburghers were seeing at the theatre at the start of the 1950s, this is quite a daft little comedy which allows Niven to do what he did best and Romero to prove he could deliver well enough as a comedy foil. The music itself is all fairly unremarkable, there's no killer routine - but there's a conviviality to the whole thing that pokes a little fun at us Scots, the theatre industry and it offers us not the slightest degree of jeopardy to the predicable ending.