Mad About Men is the charming sequel to the 1948 comedy film Miranda in which a lonely mermaid captures a young man and only offers to release him on the basis that he will take her to London

That was directed by Ken Annakin who shortly after this found fame with ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ in 1952 for Walt Disney – the film ‘Mad About Men’ was made in Technicolor and directed by Ralph Thomas who did an excellent job with plenty of fun-filled moments

In Mad About Men, set in Cornwall, Miranda Trewella (Glynis Johns) returns and convinces her distant relative Caroline Trewella (Glynis Johns) to let her take her place whilst Caroline goes on a biking excursion with a friend. In order to do this, Caroline fakes an accident which leaves her wheelchair bound, explaining Miranda’s inability to walk and need to keep her ‘legs’ covered with warm blankets.

The pair hire Nurse Carey (Margaret Rutherford), who knows Miranda is a mermaid and helped her in the first film too.

However, even though Caroline is engaged back in London to the dull but stable Ronald Baker (Peter Martyn), Miranda playing as Caroline cannot help herself when she meets some of the town’s most handsome men, and she flirts, dates and kisses both Jeff Saunders (Donald Sinden) and Colonel Barclay Sutton (Nicholas Phipps).

When Ronald comes to visit ‘Caroline’ in Cornwall, Miranda takes an immediate dislike to him and ends up pouring cold fish soup over his head. The Colonel’s wife is suspicious of ‘Caroline’ and ends up discovering her secret, so, in a plot to expose her, she agrees to let ‘Caroline’ sing at a charity concert and plans to reveal her mermaid tail on stage.

However, Caroline gets back from her trip and takes Miranda’s place on stage whilst the Nurse feeds the microphone down to the cove where Miranda lives so her singing voice can still be heard. The film ends with the real Caroline and Jeff Saunders sharing a kiss whilst Miranda is safely back in the Cornish Sea.

This film is fun and light-hearted it and is difficult not to enjoy the story.  However, where it really shines is in highlighting the wistful and whimsical beauty of Miranda and the more prim and proper styling of Caroline. 

Glynis Johns’ acting helps us to differentiate easily between the Trewella girls.

The film was released to cinemas coupled with ‘African Adventure’ in Pathecolor as the supporting picture

I will have to look further into ‘African Adventure’ – it is in Colour and the filming took place in Africa so it has a lot going for it – plus it got an American and a British release