The Pleasure Garden (1955) User Reviews

The Pleasure Garden

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 8 February 2024]

There's something quite surreal about this quirky short film from James Broughton. It's all centred around an overgrown London park where the part-time warden/undertaker "Col. Gargoyle" (John Le Mesurier) spends his entire time putting up signs telling people what to do and what not to do - all the while being largely ignored by the people who use the space. No playing, no dancing, no singing, no running - they are all disregarded as this most eclectic mix of folks do everything from ballet to canoodling. It's presented as if it were a silent film with little dialogue - though Jean Anderson's "That's the best funeral I've been to all day" does stick in the mind. Hattie Jacques features - flamboyantly using her scarf as a garment and a useful conduit to "free" those bent on some degree of intimacy amongst the overgrown rhododendrons. Le Mesurier seems to have found an uniquely punitive use for an abandoned animal cage for the worst miscreants and we slowly build to quite a fun denouement between the forces of good (fun) and bad (rules). At times it can come across as what might be considered "racy" and there is plenty of semi-operatic singing to keep it flowing but there's no doubt that it's very much of it's time, and now serves as little more than a curio that sees the charismatic dynamic between the husband and wife Jacques and Le Mesurier convene an ensemble of slapstick lightheartedness.

Victory over the Prudes in James Broughton's "The Pleasure Garden" (1953)

[kitten-calfee · 10/10 · 10 February 2013]

"The Pleasure Garden" by James Broughton is a joyous musical fantasy celebrating Love in the Park. In this award-winning film the pleasure principle wins a sweet victory over all prudes and killjoys. Filmed in the United Kingdom in the ruins of The Crystal Palace Terraces, The Pleasure Garden is a playful and poetic ode to desire, and winner of the Prix de Fantasie Poétique at Cannes in 1954. The film features Hattie Jaques and Lindsay Anderson, with John Le Mesurier as the bureaucrat determined to stamp on any form of free expression.

Lovers of the history of Crystal Palace will find much to treasure in this 1950s time capsule of a film, which shows the Crystal Colonnade and the bandstand (both later demolished), the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Memorial, and much of the statuary which was to be auctioned off in 1957.

WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT "The Pleasure Garden" "In Chaplin, Rene Clair, Buster Keaton, Jacques Tati we enjoy on a big scale the fruits of the poetic turned comic. Broughton is of their kind, except that he holds more strongly to feeling, makes short cuts they daren't, sees and sings out of himself, and never dilutes a joke or a movement. THE PLEASURE GARDEN thus combines the pleasure of Keystone with the love lyric. It springs like the lark, and mingles oddity, grace, satire, and laughter without a dead moment." – Sight and Sound "It's on the side of the angels. It's a great testimony for Love." – Allen Ginsberg

Quaint

[Ross-c · 18 August 2004]

It's difficult for me to comment on this movie. My primary reasons for seeing it were to see the ruins of the Crystal Palace before most of the remaining statues (after the fire) were removed. And, to see both Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier in early, and unusual, roles. Both of these requirements are amply fulfilled. It's difficult for me to imagine how I'd react to this movie if it was set somewhere I've never seen, and if I didn't know any of the actors. But, as there are no other comments for this movie yet, I'll try.

As a movie, I'd compared it to other non-traditional movies such as Robinson in Space, or Derek Jarman's The Garden. Except that The Pleasure Garden is very, very dated. Quaint doesn't even begin to describe it. The plot is simple, and knowing the plot ahead of time is no spoiler. A number of characters (and they are definitely characters) meet up in a strange ruined landscape (that this is Crystal Palace is not part of the story), and discover themselves and each other, all clearly heading in the direction of discovering the, shall we say, joys of intimacy. John Le Mesurier's character Col. Pall K Gargoyle rushes around putting up signs banning almost any sort of fun, and admonishing (and even locking in some sort of prison) those who would dare to enjoy themselves. Into this comes Hattie Jacques' character, Mrs Albion. She is some sort of magical fairy cupid godmother figure who uses her magic to liberate people and set them on the road to, it must be said, intimacy. The climax is a battle between the forces of repression and the forces of quaint hedonism.

This movie could be described as a strange mixture of carry on films, Disney, and art house. But, it is dated. Seeing a woman posing in her petticoat is not exactly shocking in the 21st century. And, did I say it was dated? It's more than just the movie not being explicit. The movie has a fair number of songs on the soundtrack, and they are dated. No pulsating rock track here. The dialog sounds dated. The whole concept is dated.

But, if you're interested in seeing a true curio of a movie. Or, if you just want to see early performances of Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier. Or, if you want to see what Crystal Palace looked like in the early 50s, this movie is worth checking out. If you want a Hollywood Blockbuster, you'll be well advised to look elsewhere.