Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951)

A small town English girl (Pauline Stroud) wins a local beauty contest posing as Lady Godiva. She's then entered into a bigger beauty pageant and wins a thousand pounds, a mink coat and a movie contract! But the road to stardom isn't that easy. Directed by Frank Launder (I SEE A DARK STRANGER), this sweet natured comedy suffers from the sexism of its era. Stroud's pageant winner starts off unsure of herself but later is determined to forge ahead in a career of her own in spite of her naysaying family. But ultimately that decision is taken away from her when an Australian he-man (John McCallum) takes matters into his own hands and like a caveman whisks her off the stage (literally) and into wedded bliss in the Australian outback. It leaves a bad taste in an otherwise innocuous comedy. The film is more interesting because of several other actresses in smaller roles who would go on to bigger screen fame than Pauline Stroud in the ensuing years: Kay Kendall, Diana Dors, Joan Collins, Dana Wynter and Anne Heywood. Also in the cast: Dennis Price, Stanley Holloway, Alastair Sim, George Cole, Sid James and Dora Bryan.