Penny Princess (1952)
Director:
Val Guest
Writer:
Val Guest
Stars:
Yolande Donlan, Dirk Bogarde, A.E. Matthews
Actress Yolande Donlon and her producer-director husband Val Guest were the prime movers of the 1952 comedy Penny Princess. Donlon plays Lindy Smith, a Manhattan shopgirl who inherits a mythical European kingdom. Upon learning that the country is flat broke, Lindy applies her Yankee ingenuity towards hyping the country's one and only asset: alcohol-flavored cheese. Soon the tiny country is thriving economically, much to the dismay of a gang of smugglers who'd previously ruled the roost. The romantic angle is provided by Dirk Bogarde as a go-getting cheese salesman who falls for the heroine. A. E. Matthews, who by conservative estimate must have been 300 years old in 1952, has a sparkling cameo as Bogarde's boss.