There is nothing risqué in "The Facts of Love"; the title is definitely a misnomer. Oxford Films has made ample use of light comedy to concoct a generally delightful jibe at middle class England.
Happily, the film is dominated by the bumbling of "Father" Robinson, orthodox resident of an English version Andy Hardy hometown. He writes traveller's postcards, variants on the mundane, before he leaves on vacation; at the last minute he exchanges a Mediterranean cruise for the perennial seaside fortnight, and on his return relates Mediterranean tales from a guidebook. The situational humor--when a dog tramples his pampered begonias and a prospective son-in-law breaks his clock--is unfortunately more exercise and less amusing than Robinson's commentaries on his vacation, his newspaper, and his wife.
In Robinson's puberty-conscious son, Peter, Andy Hardy has a British accent and a British jalopy. Peter's romantic embarrassments are lighter than Hardy's, but a Rooney adolescent in middle class England seems a bit implausible.
Only in spots does the film lag, but then into dull redundancy. Quarrels between the daughter Robinson and her fiance drag out, and are finally paralleled in a ridiculous dispute between the devoted "Mother" and "Father."
The best acting is turned in by Gordon Harper; he is superbly complacent as the complacent "Father." Betty Balfour, Jimmy Hanley, and Jill Evans give credible performances, as do minor members of the cast.
"A Benchley Festival" accompanies the main feature. To see the comic in "An Evening Alone," "How to Sleep," and "A Night At the Movies" is alone worth a trip to the Beacon Hill.
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