The Last of the Blonde Bombshells

Starring:Judi Dench, Ian Holm, Leslie Caron, Olympia Dukakis, Cleo Laine, Joan Sims, Billie Whitelaw, June Whitfield, Thelma Ruby, Millie Findlay, Felicity Dean, Nicholas Palliser, Valentine Pelka, Carla MacKinnon, Dom Chapman, John Warnaby, James Cosmo, Romola Garai, Saskia Vale, Grant Ibbs
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Product Type: DVD

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Perennial Oscar(r) nominee Judi Dench shakes off the dust of period pieces to play a sassy widow looking to recapture a little of the excitement of her youth: she was the star saxophone player of a World War II-era all-girl dance band. Yanking her instrument from mothballs, she starts blowing the old standards as a street musician, much to the horror of her cultured children (they prefer symphonies to swing classics), and then hatches a plan to track down her band mates for a gala reunion at her granddaughter's school dance. The script carries little suspense and few surprises, but the cast is a delight. Ian Holm costars as the band's womanizing drummer (in a dress and a platinum blonde wig), a rascally old rogue who seduced almost every member during their brief wartime run and married half of them in the intervening years. Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck) is their trombonist, a hard-drinking American widow living it up in a Scottish castle; jazz great Cleo Laine is a trumpeter turned torch singer; and Leslie Caron cameos as their brassy bass player. Joan Sims (a fixture of the Carry On movies), Billie Whitelaw (Quills), and June Whitfield (the mother on Absolutely Fabulous) are among the great British character actors who join the fun. The old broads bring sass to the sentimentality in this fluffy, feel-good, made-for-cable comedy, insisting there is not only life after 60, but that it swings sweetly if only you let it. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Great coming of Third Age tale.......2007-05-29

What do you do after your husband of many years dies? Elizabeth (Dench) went to the library twice a week, babysat her granddaughter and that was life enough--til she heard a street busker and took her clandestine saxophone practice to the streets.

Her grand-daughter encourages Elizabeth to re-form her old swing band, "The Blonde Bombshells" for her school dance. That takes some effort--a couple are dead, one's crazy, one's joined the Salvation Army...

But nothing can stop Elizabeth when she's set her mind to something. The resulting story is witty, winning and well worth owning. This film would make a great gift for any woman or man who's entering the third age and looking for some inspiration.

Good TV movie made with only modest aspirations.......2007-04-17

This is a pleasant little movie about a bunch of septuagenarians having a graceful last fling--or perhaps beginning a series of graceful last flings. It is a sort of roll call for some great old girls, ballasted by the presence of Ian Holm, playing a transvestite part at second hand. (Don't ask.) It offers some good forties-style big band numbers and a couple of fine Cleo Laine songs. And if Laine's musical style happens to be incorrect for the intended period, who really cares?

This is a TV movie made without high goals.

It could and should have been better. The whole thing, rebuilding the band to the contrary, is conceived as a long dying fall. The Blonde Bombshells are a band destined to go gentle into that good night. No raging against the loss of light for them. Both the script and the direction avoid triumph. At the climax, where there might just as easily have been a YEAH! moment, there is only a wistful smile and a vision of things past.

This is true not only of the script but of the musical score. In the end, as was inevitable from the first frame of this picture, the reconstituted Blonde Bombshells get the joint jumping with a swinging tune. Having attained that high point, it is immediately squelched by the following wistfully downbeat number. Reverse those two and the audience would be dancing around the screen.

Solid, well-acted, some good music, certainly entertaining--but a movie that sets its sights a little too low.

Four stars.

DVD STUFF: There are no bells and whistles. You pay your penny and you get your movie. That's all.

A TRIFLING OBSERVATION: Leslie Caron must have one heck of a manager. I'd be surprised if she had as many as half a dozen lines, but she has third billing in the credits.

Fancy a bit of fun, Dearie?.......2007-03-31

Some moviies lie buried under the latest box office statistics and smothered by the youth-fixated executives that run the business - but the DVD and VCR make it possible for you to dig them up and appreciate them for the treasures they are. This is one of them - an enjoyable film about grownups who find pleasures in life - making music and finding old friends, and sharing their best with their children. Actually, their grandchildren, since the children are often stuffy about what their parents are really like. Certainly, Dame Judi's are scandalized when she whips out her old saxaphone and starts blowing on street corners with a street musician. Not all of her audience is unappreciative: she gets a note from Ian Holm that says "Fancy a bit of fun, dearie?"

Well, do you? There's more than a bit of fun to be had here, especially when Olympia Dukakis blows that trumpet. And wait till you see Leslie Caron on a bull fiddle!

If you are into sweet nostalgia .......2007-03-23

It has a nice story of a grandmother who played in WW2 in an all-girl band and decides today to get the group back for a schoolchildren concert. She finds opposition from her children but her grand-daughter pushes her on. In parts, I thought the story could have used a little more work still it was reasonable.

The acting was good.

If you are into these sort of stories it is watchable.

How do they stay so young looking?.......2007-02-06

Inspired at least a little by Ivy Benson & Her All Girls Orchestra, who performed throughout the war years at the Covent Garden Opera house, this film chronicles the attempts by an elderly saxophone player to reform the (almost) all girl band with whom she played as a schoolgirl towards the end of WWII. All too brief flashbacks to the original band on stage bring us some wonderful music, and help to fill in the background to the band members, and in particular to the girls' relationships with the lone male member - their transvestite drummer (who is trying to dodge the call-up).

Ian Holm ("Lord of The Rings", "Cromwell and Fairfax") and Judi Dench turn in superb leading performances as the recently widowed Elizabeth, and the conniving, womanizing Patrick, the drummer. The late Joan Sims is perfect as the band's leader, now playing bar piano at the sea-side, and June Whitfield glows as the Salvation Army trombone player. Cameo appearances by other greats like Cleo Laine, Leslie Caron, Olympia Dukakis and Billie Whitelaw make this an unforgettable experience. The movie is a romp down memory lane, with an all star cast of what ought, by all rights, to be a bunch of over-the-hill actresses. All I can say is, I hope I look as good at their age! Leslie Caron, in particular, is still an incredible fox, at 69 years of age. She certainly still gets my pulse going! As I watched it, I was mentally berating the casting director for not using women of the appropriate age. Afterwards, I looked these girls up, and discovered that every one of them is old enough to have been performing in the London of 1944 (although this might be a bit of a stretch for Judi Dench).

If you like swing bands, thrive on nostalgia, or just want to see how good a woman can manage look with almost three quarters of a century behind her, don't miss this film.

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