Review for A Nice Girl Like Me

Boy oh boy. ‘A Nice Girl Like Me’ is definitely a film of its era; produced at the tail end of the sixties its risqué narrative as well as its back-lit, chocolate-box-lid, flake-advert style cinematography could only really have come from that time. It’s a film that looks softer than a seventies Silvikrin advert - all golden sunsets and soft-lens stuff that is almost entirely devoid of contrast or detail, terribly popular at the time. Which makes it far more fun than I thought it would be.

It’s the swinging sixties and a naïve school-girl Candida (played by an impossibly too old for that particular part, Barbara Ferris) learns that her rather cool and distant Father has passed away, leaving her his fashionable London riverside house. She immediately leaves the boarding school she is at and she stays with two well-meaning aunts (a kind of ‘Snoop-Sisters’ duo) until, bored, she leaves for a solo trip to Paris. And then the trouble starts.



Falling for a pretentious Parisian artist, she returns to her own home in London, now pregnant, only to find it still occupied by her Father’s manservant, Savage (played superbly by Harry Andrews). Learning of her pregnancy he takes a remarkably pragmatic and sanguine view, helping her throughout the pregnancy and taking her to the hospital when the hour comes to have the child.


The relationship between the ditzy Candida and the stoic and practical Savage grows as thy both care for the baby – although Savage is keen for the young Candida to find a suitable husband.


To this end, she takes a visit to Venice with one of the aunts who falls ill, leaving the young Candida to explore the city on her own. She soon falls for a wealthy, young but irresponsible American who, when Candida suggests they marry, turns her down flat, leaving her to return home to Savage with yet another child on the way. Well, actually, one in waiting and another which is handed to her through the train window by a peasant women. Which makes three children under the age of two and no suitable husband to be found anywhere.


Savage continues to behave magnanimously and the two of them soon get into a routine to manage the three small children whilst Candida’s search for a suitable suitor continues.




With the help of one of the aunts she meets a young civil servant – a dull man who seems very keen and who soon asks for her hand in marriage. At the eleventh hour she changes her mind about the wedding and the film closes with her casting the wedding dress into the Thames. But who is the figure behind her laughing? I think you’ll probably guess the ending – but when it comes – despite its predictability, it’s a very satisfying ‘they all lived happily ever after’ ending that wraps film up nicely.


The film does feel dated, but in a good way – a perfect way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon when nothing better is on. London, Paris and Venice all look splendid, frequently shot with the late afternoon sun silhouetting much in its path.


Barbara Ferris plays Candida brilliantly – at first I thought a little under-played, but by the end of the film I was convinced by the performance, striking the right balance between free-wheeling, off-the-rails 60’s chick and being, after all, a ‘nice girl’. See it and you’ll understand.



‘A Nice Girl Like Me’ won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But for those who remember it with fondness, and with the odds greatly stacked against such a little known film ever getting a legitimate DVD release, let alone an airing on TV, this will be seen as a most welcome release. As per with Network releases, it contains a two page PDF cinema publicity sheet from time of release as well.