Mrs Harris goes to Paris Film review

 

... 

the classsic story of a London charwoman (part time house cleaner) who falls in love with a Dior gown, and saves money to buy it.

Starring Leslie Manville, better known for playing Princess Margaret in the Crown.

Mrs Harris is a widow still mourning her late husband (who was listed as missing in action but now was relisted as dead, so she can move her live on and stop waiting for him). She cleans houses for the very rich, some of whom really don't see her ('we are the invisible women") and often talk down to her. 

But at one house, she sees a Dior dress and falls in love with it: It is the most beautiful dress she ever saw, and owning one becomes a dream for her. So she saves her money to buy the dress... 

when she has the money, she travels to Paris and manages not to get throw out of the Dior fashion house thanks to a kindly widower who takes her in on his ticket.

Her kindness impresses the lower staff, and they help her in their small ways, and in return she helps one young man to get the courage to court one of the models that he secretly has loved. And yes, she does get to buy her dress (and help the young man who helped her by pointing out that Dior could use their name on quality items for the growing middle class).

Unlike the previous film (see below) it is filmed as reality, not as a fairy tale, so the film does have a few small holes in the plot, (like why do the French people speak English). 

One does wish there was a short explanation of the early 1950s for the younger generation, who know little or nothing about the austerity of the World War II and post war era in England.

And after years of making do with dresses which were often just remakes of older clothes and often were durable rather than lovely, then women saw the very lovely and feminine Dior "new look" dresses exploded into the fashion world.

After the war period of utilitarian attires and vestiary austerity, perhaps nothing felt newer than Dior's vision. His first collection rejected the modern course of dressing established in the 1920s and 30s, which intended to liberate women from the restrictive sculptural volumes and corsets of early 20th-century fashion. Instead, he presented an image of radical femininity, achieved by tight-fitting jackets with padded hips, petite waists, and A-line skirts.

The desire of Mrs Harris for a lovely dress might seem trivial to the younger generation raised in a time of prosperity, who might not understand the need of a cleaning lady for something beautiful in her drab life.

But that said, the movie does hint to these realities, and the willingness of a lowly charlady/cleaning lady to follow her dream.

A most enjoyable film.

I give it five stars.

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Here is the background for the dresses seen in the film:

and here is the 1992 TV movie of the story, starring Angela Landsbury, Diane Rigg, and Omar Sharif as the count who befriends her.