Ladies Who Do (1963)

Bombastic but lovable Charwoman Mrs. Cragg (Peggy Mount) inadvertently takes a piece of scrap paper from a trash can at work to Colonel Whitforth (Robert Morley). That paper has information on her boss’s (Harry H. Corbett) and his partner’s (Jon Pertwee) plans to buy a failing company. The Colonel invests and makes a huge profit. When Mrs. Cragg discovers that her boss plans to tear down all the houses on her street, she teams up with the Colonel and three other charwomen to find information in the garbage to get rich and thwart the development.

All movements have to end, and Ladies Who Do is a good place to lay to rest Post-War British Comedy. There are still direct references to WWII, such as the old woman who loved the blitz. And the basic plot revolves around the massive redevelopment that was going on in Britain due to the war, but for the most part, times were shifting, and films with a vested interest in demonstrating the fundamental differences between the Brits and the Fascists were fading. Well, if you have to go, this is the way to do it.

Ladies Who Do (the title comes from the at-the-time polite term for cleaning women) has that mix of over the top silliness, charm, and wit that marked the movement. Once again we have eccentric characters—working-class ones as class was still an issue of great importance—with a scheme of questionable legality. But their fight is to keep their strange, thoroughly British community together, so who minds a little law-breaking?

Peggy Mount (Sailor Beware!, Dry Rot, The Naked Truth) dominates the film and all the characters in it, as she always did. She is a force of nature—a comedian with an impressive set of lungs. Used incorrectly she could tire an audience out, but here she is perfect. Most of the humor springs from her never-ending tirades. Yet everyone still has a chance to shine, no more so than the always entertaining Robert Morley. He plays another relic of a time past—the military officer, clinging to a vanishing social status. Jon Pertwee, best known as the 4th Doctor in Doctor Who, plays against type as the put-upon investment partner who is no match for anyone he meets. His elder brother wrote the script.

It’s all light comedy, but there’s plenty of satire if you want a bit more meat. Capitalism and the failings of post-war development come in for most of the skewering, though there are a few good-natured kicks at workers unions and communism (one of the charwomen is waiting for the revolution, but until then, might as well make a few pounds).

I didn’t get to see the major Post-War British Comedies (Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers) until more than a decade after they were released, but this trailing member hit US independent television just a few years after it hit English theaters. It was the closest I got to the movement in real time, and is a slice of British life as it was when I was a child. It may not be a classic, but it is a great time and not to be missed.