The Clandestine Marriage

OPIS

Though gamely directed by Christopher Miles, this 18th-century period piece - derived from a play by actor David Garrick and George Coleman, the Elder - is a mismatched mating of British talents. Nigel Hawthorne heads the cast as a drunken lord trying to get his family entwined with the nouveau riche (often the cross-fertilising case in reality), while Joan Collins puts her best bosoms forward as a domineering snob. Alas, they can't convince us there's much wit in the piece. The film's walking waxworks look is impeccable, but its theme of nobility migrating across class for money doesn't make us care about the outcome or the mercenary characters. It might have been different had there been someone to like, though audiences of the time no doubt found it hilarious.