This cheap comedy, the last to be directed by hack Francis Searle, had been forgotten until it turned up in a 2008 BBC documentary, "Truly, Madly, Cheaply!" It's a vehicle for Northern drag act Bunny Lewis, who on the strength of this performance had little ability in or out of a frock. The plot is a destitute man's "Some Like It Hot" - a club barman witnesses a murder and goes undercover in drag to evade the killer. The situations that develop are true to the comedy of the times - James Beck (then a star of "Dad's Army") immediately finds Lewis attractive and tries to chat him up; Lewis finds it exciting when he's expected to share a bed with a dolly bird. The film was shot entirely in Manchester, in and around many of the city's cabaret clubs, and features brief appearances by Colin Crompton and Bernard Manning not to mention the world's worst girl band performing songs by Kenny Lynch. The claim is that the film failed because it came out around the same time as "Our Miss Fred" and "Ooh, You Are Awful" but a more likely explanation is that this is a poor film built around a second-rate performer. It's an interesting insight into the generation of drag acts that were enjoyed by straight couples before and after the decriminalisation of homosexuality. The next generation, which found stardom in the new gay venues, made few concessions to panto-style female impersonation.
