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What a waste of my time!!!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

One has to keep in mind that this British comedy, about the experiences of a Soviet engineer in Britain, was produced at a critical point in the relations between those two nations. Due to the fact that Joseph Stalin had signed a non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Union remained neutral after Britain and France went to war against Germany in 1939. The Soviets didn't come into the war as an ally of Britain until the middle of 1941, after Germany invaded Russia. It was not an easiest alliances. Unlike the case of Britain and the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union had almost nothing in common, either politically or linguistically. In fact, British relations with the Soviet Union had been strained ever since the 1917 Revolution.The Demi-Paradise was produced as an aid to bridging the cultural gap between those two allies, at least from the British point of view. I have no idea whether it was ever shown in Russia, let alone how it would have been perceived by audiences there. The story concerns a Russian engineer, played by Olivier, who encounters a pair of British seamen ashore in Murmansk during World War II. Typically, the British are complaining about the difficulties they are having among the "foreigners". To their astonishment, Olivier jokingly informs them in English that it is they who are the "foreigners" in Russia, and then proceeds to recount his own experiences as a "foreigner" when he was assigned to do a job in Britain both before, and during, the war. In addition to being a wartime propaganda film, The Demi-Paradise is full of the sort of self-deprecating humor the British seem to love. While produced in Britain, the script actually was written by a Russian ex-patriot, Anatole de Grunwald. Consequently, one cannot help but feel that the writer brought a lot of his own personal experiences and impressions into the story. The result is very droll, and one cannot help but feel that the protagonist's experiences are probably universal to any stranger in a strange land.

During WWII, the American and British film industry made quite a few films that attempted to rehabilitate the perceptions about the Russian people. That's because before the war, they were the enemy, but now that the three countries were allies, the government pushed film makers to portray the Russians in very glowing terms. In the States, films like THE NORTH STAR gave a sickeningly sweet view of the Russians that were just too good to be true. THE DEMI-PARADISE is a British film that also seeks to made the Russians seem more human--more like our friends.It's interesting to see the famous actor Laurence Olivier playing Ivan Kouznetsoff--a Russian who talks to some British seamen during the war about his visit to London before the war. His accent seemed okay to me, but who am I to judge?! Anyways, the film is all told in flashback form. For the most part, Olivier's character is a bit standoffish and seems to think everything Russian is better--though this improves a bit through the course of the film. As for the Brits, they range from a few suspicious idiots to those who keep pointing out how "they are just like us". A father even wonders out loud about what a great husband Kouznetsoff would make. Talk about over-idealizing the Russians. As a result, the people in the film seem more like caricatures than real people. And as for Olivier, he seemed a bit silly--very stereotypical and broad in his portrayal.Now despite me not loving this film and disliking how unreal everyone seemed, it was a good bit better than the WWII Hollywood films that were pro-Russia. They went even further to idealize Russia--to such a point that the films are downright dumb, as no group of people is THAT wonderful and happy and full of spunk! Overall, it's an interesting curio but certainly not a film you should run out to rent.

I mentioned when reviewing THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP that David Low played no favorites with his cartoons. In the 1930s he attacked all the great dictators (Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, and Stalin). He also found his reactionary Colonel useful to attack any other types of reactionaries. In 1941, after Churchill declared he would send aid to Communist Russian against their common enemy Germany, Russian hard liners screamed about trusting Imperial Britain. Low made a cartoon on this, with a Russian hardliner who was the Colonel, but now called "Blimpski".Still the Anglo-Communist alliance was a difficult one to totally accept, even when one realized it's total necessity against Nazi barbarism. THE DEMI-PARADISE illustrates this problem. Laurence Olivier is a committed Communist Russian engineer, trying to perfect a torpedo for his nation's war effort. Stalin's government arranges to send Olivier to England to work with English naval experts to make his new form of gyroscope work.The problem is that Olivier is totally suspicious of his hosts. He is a man in his early 30s, and he has been brought up to suspect that Britain (like Germany and Italy) is against the Soviet Union. After all, it was against the Soviet Union for decades. So the film follows as Olivier gets use to the vagaries of the British character he meets with in different English men and women. Gradually he learns to trust them but it takes quite a while.The film has it's problems. Olivier prided himself on his abilities with accents, but in truth (seeing his movie and television performances today) when he plays English or American people he sounds realistic. When he tries foreign accents one cringes. He copies Albert Basserman (including shrugs) when he does Germans (or German Jews). His Russian engineer, at first, sounds realistic - but he also sounds slow witted. To be fair with Olivier his engineer is speaking a second language (but no Russian is heard in the film). He speaks definitively and slowly - and it gets to be a drag. A real Russian would have a faster clip to his words (unless, as I said, he was slow witted).The best parts are the various British character actors, teaching the Russian visitor about the traditions and their importance to Britains. Olivier does point out some of them are silly (which occasionally the others agree). For example, there is a yearly "historic" pageant in the town, and Margaret Rutherford runs it. One of the highlights is a reenactment of the moment in late June 1815 when a coach arrived in the town announcing the battle of Waterloo. A bemused Felix Aylmer (the head of the local ship yard, and a host for Olivier) looks at this moment which he has seen for umpteen times before, and says out loud, "I wonder who won!" The film, as a morale booster, was good. As a reminder of a critical wartime problem (that fortunately was overcome long enough to defeat the Nazis) it is rather special.

Good example of the type of movies made in England during the war, to keep spirits up. The Brits never seem to engage in gung-ho war stuff: which makes for more pleasant viewing.While nowhere near the league of, say, "A Canterbury Tale", The Demi-Paradise has enough realism (of the British character) to while away a pleasant hour and a half.