The Pleasure Garden

2/8/2024

There's something quite surreal about this quirky short film from James Broughton. It's all centred around an overgrown London park where the part-time warden/undertaker "Col. Gargoyle" (John Le Mesurier) spends his entire time putting up signs telling people what to do and what not to do - all the while being largely ignored by the people who use the space. No playing, no dancing, no singing, no running - they are all disregarded as this most eclectic mix of folks do everything from ballet to canoodling. It's presented as if it were a silent film with little dialogue - though Jean Anderson's "That's the best funeral I've been to all day" does stick in the mind. Hattie Jacques features - flamboyantly using her scarf as a garment and a useful conduit to "free" those bent on some degree of i