Dir: Lewis Gilbert | Cast: Kenneth More, Danielle Darrieux, Susannah York, Jane Asher | UK Drama 100’
Reviewed by Richard Chatten
Jane Asher declared that the best kiss she ever had was on the set of this film, while Susannah York is amazing in her breakthrough role in this charming adaptation of Rumer Godden’s 1958 novel, directed with far more sensitivity than you’d have anticipated from Lewis Gilbert.
The film follows four English schoolchildren whose holiday in France takes an unexpected turn when their mother falls seriously ill from an insect bite and is hospitalised, leaving them to fend for themselves at the dilapidated but once-elegant Hôtel Les Oeillets, run by a frosty owner, Mademoiselle Zizi (Darrieux)
Ravishingly photographed by Freddie Young on summery locations in the Reims and the Champagne region with a typically graceful score by Richard Addinsell and a performance by Kenneth More as a charming crook that makes it only too easy to understand why the ladies love him.
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