Girdle of Gold (1952)

This is one of those simple, post-war, comedies that offers us a glimpse at just what made our forebears laugh. If you approach it in that spirit, then this turns out to be quite an entertainingly predicable romp that takes a gentle swipe at the lives and hypocrisies of rural life in Wales along the way. "Griffiths the Hearse" (Meredith Edwards) likes a drink and is usually delivered home in the small hours after one of his "engagements" by his pal "Evans the Milk" (Esmond Knight). His long suffering wife (Maudie Edwards) is always looking for more housekeeping cash and he keeps pleading poverty - but, his secret stash of some £100 is sewn into the fabric of one of her corsets. Perhaps she starts to notice this rather unseemly bulge in her underwear, and times being what they are, offers "Mrs. Macey" (Tonie MacMillan) a sort of old for new arrangement, with her old corsets being sold on to new people. She's also looking for another trade-in too, her husband for the man with the milk! "Hearse" isn't so bothered about his wife absconding with his best mate, but he needs the corset back! What now ensues is all a bit daft, but it's quite wittily scripted and delivered by a cast who know how to get the silk purse out of the sow's ear. Will he find the cash or will some complete stranger get the windfall...?