ianlouisiana Review of Bachelor of Hearts

Bachelor of Hearts (1958)

In which two Cambridge Men write a paean to their Alma Mater

[8/10 · 20 February 2008]

Frederick Raphael,the archetypal Yank at Cambridge and later to be responsible for the brilliant "Glittering Prizes",teamed up with fellow Cambridge man Leslie Bricusse better known as a songwriter to produce this delightful little piece of fluff that is in reality barely more than a commercial for their Alma Mater decorated by some charming English actors and the wry,ruefully attractive Herr Kruger who had a brief Icarus - like career in the late fifties British Cinema. It's main value is as an historical piece preserving forever images of the University of half a century ago,an institution far removed from the one that exists today.Happily elitist,blissfully unaware of the 20th century,the University as portrayed in "Bachelor of Hearts"(nice pun boys)has long since ceased to exist.No longer full of terribly well - spoken chaps from Eton,Harrow,Winchester or Salisbury,Cambridge,unlike Oxford,now takes the majority of its students from State Schools.Gowns are only worn for formal dinners or Graduations and in some colleges women outnumber men. Fortunately some things never change and there will always be male undergrads like Herr Kruger cutting a swathe through their female counterparts, a job made easier by the fact that there is no segregation of the sexes and that the boys and girls can live together quite openly in their college sets. But back in 1958 most of the fun was in the chase and the great Miss Sylvia Sims - soon to triumph in "Expresso Bongo" - was indeed a glittering prize.This brilliant actress was to have a long and triumphant career,seen most recently as the Queen Mother in 2006's "The Queen". There are lots of undergraduate japes,no sex,no swearing,no violence and no screaming rock soundtrack.It was a small happy success in its time and sixty - somethings may well love it.Others to whom sex,swearing,violence and screaming rock soundtracks are the stuff of life will find very little to interest them in a movie of real charm and good old - fashioned Englishness.