Miranda (1948)

While on a fishing holiday in Cornwall, a doctor (Griffith Jones) is rescued by a mermaid (Glynis Johns). Taken with her, he brings her home to his wife (Googie Withers) and passes her off as an invalid patient unable to walk. A wheelchair and long dresses disguise her fishtail. Long before Ron Howard's 1984 film SPLASH found favor with audiences, this whimsical fantasy was a big enough hit (at least in England) to spawn a sequel, MAD ABOUT MEN. Director Ken Annakin (THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES) doesn't push the quaintness too hard, preferring instead that the audience let itself be seduced voluntarily. The pert Glynis Johns is real charmer in the title role so it's easy though the irrepressible Margaret Rutherford as Miranda's eccentric nurse gets as close to stealing the film from Johns as anyone. The film itself is quite a racy thing for its day and the film's final shot quite an eye opener. With David Tomlinson (MARY POPPINS), John McCallum, Maurice Denham and Zena Marshall.