 Peter Noone admires Sheila White's new bonnet in a scene from "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter," tuneful comedy of today's groovy generation, starring Herman's Hermits. The famous singing group introduce eight of their songs in MGM's swinging musical adventure, filmed in Panavision and Metrocolor and featuring Stanley Holloway. An Allen Klein production. |
 Talented leader of Herman's Hermits, Peter Noone stars with his famous singing group in "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," tuneful comedy of today's groovy generation. The popular entertainers introduce eight of their songs in MGM's swinging musical adventure in Panavision and color, featuring Stanley Holloway. |
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In one single motion picture, director Saul Swimmer has almost single-handedly set an entirely new fashion trend in women's clothes. The picture is the swinging musical, "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," an Allen Klein production for MGM, starring Herman's Hermits and Stanley Holloway. Together with wardrobe designer Beatrice Dawson, the doyenne of British film wardrobe creators, Swimmer devised an entire sequence lasting well over fifteen minutes and utilizing twenty girls, all wearing pastel-colored paper dresses. The sequence covers a party scene attended by youngsters in way-out "gear" - some of the boys in cowboy outfits complete with fringed buckskin shirts and "chaps" in tooled leather; others wearing Arabic Caftans embossed with gold threads; others in full-scale military tunics. But the paper dresses are the focal point of the party. "Miss Dawson had designed 20 outfits for the girls using conventional silks, chiffons and other materials," explained director Swimmer. "She suggested having paper flowers made, to be either worn or carried, and had brought along ten different shades of paper for my approval. Suddenly, the idea hit her that we might use paper for the dresses themselves. At first, it seemed a way-out suggestion. But as Miss Dawson explained the advantages it made more and more sense, and I gave her the go-ahead. She can tell you the rest . . . ." To Beatrice Dawson, whose recent film credits include "Goldfinger," "Life At The Top," "Promise Her Anything," and "Modesty Blaise," the go-ahead meant the opportunity to experiment in an entirely new dimension. "It was a marvelous chance," she said, her eyes smiling behind enormous owlish spectacles. "I'd read a lot about the way paper had been used in dress-designing and about the problems that crop up and was itching to try my hand. I knew that all the dresses I had |
designed for 'Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter' would adapt themselves to paper if I could get hold of the right colors." An exhaustive mission of scouting paper mills and paper importers followed and just three weeks before the party scenes had been scheduled for shooting, Miss Dawson pinned down one of Britain's largest and most influential paper manufacturers. "They were the only people who were able to offer a sufficiently wide range of colored paper," she said, "and we immediately set to work on the dresses." The 20 dresses that emerged were what the designer considers to be the logical extreme of what is happening today in young women's clothes. "Most of the dresses in the picture have very short mini-skirts," said Miss Dawson, "seven, eight and even nine inches above the knee. I have bared shoulders, slashed slits up the sides and backs of the garments, given some of the girls contrasting pants to wear under the shorter of the skirts, cut gaping holes in the midriffs. It worked, not only because the clothes are unusual, they are, but more because the girls wearing them do so with style. I am sure I could have done almost anything and these kids would have carried it off!" Miss Dawson adds, "We shot the scene over five days and the paper dresses stood up very well. They did crease but no more than conventional fabrics, and a light touch with a warm iron soon fixed that. They hardly showed any signs of wear and tear after the shooting, and the girls all remarked on how comfortable they were." The designer sums up: "I think we are about to enter a new phase in fashions and fabrics, and I include men's wear, as well. And I am convinced paper will form the basis of the new cult." |
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 "Taking coals to Newcastle" was never more aptly illustrated than when locations scenes were filmed in London's famed fruit and vegetable market, Covent Garden, for MGM's swinging musical "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," starring Herman's Hermits More than $2,000 worth of fruit, vegetables and flowers were brought to the market for scenes showing fruit merchant Stanley Holloway instructing Herman's Hermits in the art of selling from a wheelbarrow. Genuine traders spent part of their Sunday rest gaping in astonishment as film studio trucks unloaded crates of apples, oranges, bananas, pineapples, lemons, limes, radishes, carrots, potatoes and other assorted foodstuffs to be used as movie "props." An Allen Klein production, "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter" was directed by Saul Swimmer. |
 Stanley Holloway (center) introduces Peter Noone to his daughter, Sarah Caldwell, in a scene from "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," tuneful comedy of today's groovy generation, starring Herman's Hermits. The famous singing group introduce eight of their songs in the swinging MGM musical adventure filmed in Panavision and Metrocolor. |
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Their average age is 20, they have traveled to places which most people only dream about, and they are all millionaires. Even if you are not a pop fan, you must admit that this is something of an achievement. They are Herman's Hermits, who have sold nine-million single recordings and three-million albums, an astounding proof of international popularity, and who are now starring in the swinging musical, "Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter," Allen Klein production for MGM, with Stanley Holloway, Marjorie Rhodes, Lance Percival and Mona Washbourne. What are the snags that are said to go hand-in-hand with the sort of instant success experienced by Herman's Hermits? "For us there aren't any," says 20-year-old Peter Noone, the group's lead vocalist. "How can there be snags? We are all doing something we enjoy. Since we were 13 or 14, all we wanted to do was joing a pop-group. I suppose most kids want to do the same. We were just luckier than most. We happened to come together at the right moment and our sound |
was right." Lead and rhythm guitar player Derek Leckenby agrees with Noone. "Before joining the Hermits I was studying civil engineering at college, and in my spare time I played with two groups, the Wailers and the Hellions. When the chance came to form the Hermits I was very enthusiastic and I haven't for a moment regretted leaving school." Barry Whitwam (drums) and Keith Hopwood (lead guitar) claim that one of the reasons for their success is the fact that they all enjoy themselves in their occupation. "The kids can see this. They realize that we enjoy their reactions to us just as much as we enjoy playing to them." Karl Green (bass guitar) adds, "Also our music is very simple and straight forward. We don't try to push a message at listeners. They can just sit or listen or dance. We try to make our sound soft and undramatic, which in a way is a projection of our own characters since we are all easy-going." |
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