Upstairs and Downstairs – 1959 | 90 mins | Comedy | Comedy

Plot Synopsis

Genteel misfiring British comedy focusing on middle-classnewlyweds looking for the perfect servant, adapted from Ronald Scott Thorne’s1952 novel. By the eve of the new-wave 1960s the films premise was greatly outdatedand even a witty script would have struggled to salvage such a scenario, butone wasn’t forthcoming.

Ambitious executive Richard Barrie (Michael Craig) andwife Kate (Anne Heywood) are a pair of newlyweds that simply can’t find theright domestic staff, and they’ve got to do lots of entertaining for the wealthybusiness clients Kate’s father, Mansfield (James Robertson Justice).

The first prospect is Italian girl Maria (Maria Cardinale),turns out to be a man-mad maid with a penchant for American sailors. The next, Rosemary(Joan Hickson), is a raving alcoholic whose best friend is a large sheepdog.The third, Blodwen (Joan Sims), is a timid nanny who has just left her remoteWelsh home for the first time, and halfway en-route to London, changes her mindand declines the post. The fourth is an elderly couple, Arthur and Edith Farringdon,who only pose as domestics to tunnel into the next door bank and rob it.

 The last, Ingrid(Mylene Demongeot), is an attractive Swedish blonde, and she proves to be verygood. But trouble soon arises from her flirtations with Kate’s father and familyfriend Wesley Cotes (Daniel Massey), and even Richard himself is seduced byIngrid’s breezy persona.  The distraughtcouple eventually settles on put-upon policeman Edwards (Sid James) and his newbride.