The Pleasure Garden (1953 film)

The Pleasure Garden is a short film written and directed by James Broughton in 1953. Among its crew was Peter Price as sound editor. Cast members included the subsequent director Lindsay Anderson and Broughton's artistic collaborator Kermit Sheets.

Plot
Filmed among the ruins of the Crystal Palace Terraces, The Pleasure Garden is a poetic ode to desire, and winner of the Prix de Fantasie Poetique at Cannes in 1954. Made by the American poet James Broughton, the film features Hattie Jacques and Lindsay Anderson, with John Le Mesurier as the bureaucrat determined to stamp out any form of free expression.

Cast

 * Hattie Jacques as Mrs Albion
 * Diana Maddox as Bess
 * Kermit Sheets as Sam
 * Jean Anderson as Aunt Minerva
 * John Le Mesurier as Colonel Pall K. Gargoyle
 * Maxine Audley as Lady Ennui
 * Derek Hart as Lord Ennui
 * Jill Bennett as Miss Kellerman
 * Lindsay Anderson as Michael-Angelico
 * John Heawood as Mr Nurmi
 * Hilary Mackendrick as Miss Wheeling
 * Gladys Spencer as Mrs Jennybelle
 * Gontron Goulden as Doctor Hemingway
 * Victoria Grayson as Miss Greaves
 * Mary Lee Settle as Mme Paganini
 * Daphne Hunter as Girl in Grass

Home media
The Pleasure Garden was released on DVD in the UK by the BFI on 15 February 2010. The release also includes The Phoenix Tower (UK, 1957, 39 min.), a short documentary charting the construction of the BBC's Crystal Palace Television Tower, plus a fully illustrated booklet with film notes, an original review and a history of the Crystal Palace.