Rag Doll 1961 Written by Derry Quinn and Brock Williams, directed by Lance Comfort. A British film about a country girl who runs away to the big city. It was released as Young, Willing and Eager in Canada and the US the following year. Lance died in 1966 but he made 36 films and a bit of TV. I've seen some of them, liking particularly his last film Devils Of Darkness. Be My Guest, Man In The Dark, Sing And Swing, Tomorrow At Ten, Murder Can Be Deadly, The Ugly Duckling, Make Mine A Million, Temptation Harbor and Pit Of Darkness all got a 6 or 7 from me. Lance directed 7 episodes of the 1958 Ivanhoe TV series with Roger Moore. It was a favorite in our house when it was new.
Carol's only 17, she lives with her drunken stepfather in his pub. Christina Gregg plays Carol and Patrick Magee plays Flynn. He's a grabby sort, our Flynn, he puts his hands on her a few times, some of his customers are the same. Carol doesn't care much for it and runs off to the glittery life of Soho in London. Carol is befriended by a lady called Auntie who gives her a room and helps her get a job in a coffee bar run by Mort. Auntie is played by Hermione Baddeley and Mort is played by Kenneth Griffith. Mort falls for Carol but he's a bit old for her, she's got her eyes on a young handsome singer called Joe. Jess Conrad plays Joe, turns out Joe's got a evening job on the rob. Joe goes for Carol and gets her knocked up right quick. That's when she discovers he's part of a crooked gang who do robberies. When Joe finds out Carol's pregnant he plans one more job to fund an escape to Canada for his family. The robbery doesn't go so well leaving Carol to raise her baby on her own. Maybe Auntie will help.
I thought it was fairly average but it did remind me, once again, not to get involved with criminals. Good advice for the country girls out there. There's a fair amount of interesting street activity going on and some nice driving through the countryside. Jess Conrad sings a song called Why Am I Living with the uncredited help of the Dave Clark Five. I enjoyed the movie more than the song but I'd watch it again sometime.
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