Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

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Masha
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Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

Post by Masha »

Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

This is a charming bit of fluff! Douglas Fairbanks Jr. becomes a gentleman farmer on a run-down old farm in England. Yolande Donlan is his bride who wants to learn all about farming and is as handy as a drunken octopus in a leaky pickle barrel. Her education into all things agricultural includes her first visit to a cattle auction where she accidentally buys sixty ducks. The duck egg which she fixes for her husband's breakfast the next day has a green yolk which attracts the attention of a local bureaucrat who is delivering some of the myriad forms which are required when farming in England. He sends it off for analysis and the army, admiralty and R.A.F. quickly descend on the farm when it is found the egg contains uranium.

This is not high art nor intense drama but it is a quite enjoyable way to spend an hour and fifteen minutes.

I was surprised to find that Yolande Donlan did not have a more extensive career. Her performance is charming and I would have thought that being paired with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. should have been a sort of passport to good roles before health issues affected her work.

I am sure that some will recognize Jon Pertwee. He plays here a general farm hand. This is nearly twenty years prior to his appearance in: Doctor Who. He actually looks older in this role than he did in 1970!

Wilfrid Hyde-White is perfect as the officious bureaucrat who unwittingly causes so much chaos.

Many of the other actors are very familiar as veteran character actors in English movies of the era and all perform well.

I give this a 9/10 for what it is. It lost a point merely because it began repeating gags near the end.
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EP Millstone
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Re: Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

Post by EP Millstone »

Mr. Drake's Duck was directed by Val Guest. Actress Yolande Donlan was (perhaps not coincidentally) married to Guest.

Val Guest is fondly regarded by some horror/Science-Fiction/fantasy film fans for his directorial contributions to the Hammer Films gems The Quatermass Xperiment (AKA The Creeping Unknown), Quatermass II (AKA Enemy from Space), The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas (AKA The Abominable Snowman), and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. Besides helming Expresso Bongo, Hell is a City, and The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Guest also was one of the directors on Casino Royale (1967).

I haven't watched Mr. Drake's Duck in its entirety, but two elements in the movie piqued my imagination:
  • I wonder if Theodore Geisel (AKA "Dr. Seuss") got the idea for "Green Eggs and Ham" from Mr. Drake's Duck.
  • The name of The Drake's farm is "Green Acre." The protagonists Don and Penny Drake seem to me not unlike the characters Oliver Wendell and Lisa Douglas in the sixties sitcom Green Acres.
Last edited by EP Millstone on November 29th, 2022, 6:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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TikiSoo
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Re: Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

Post by TikiSoo »

Thanks Masha.
Eh when the TCM Board added "like" and "thanks" buttons, I hated & resisted it. Now I see the value in the button...saves having to take up space with additional posts to simply say "thanks".

Although I DO like this board's "ONLINE" banner! Will be great to get into a real time argument, haha.
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Masha
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Re: Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

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TikiSoo wrote: November 29th, 2022, 8:14 am Eh when the TCM Board added "like" and "thanks" buttons, I hated & resisted it. Now I see the value in the button...saves having to take up space with additional posts to simply say "thanks".
I feel that: 'like' buttons cheapen a site. I fell to using them on the TCM site because I have a chronic issue with my wrist which often makes it uncomfortable to type. I understand that it does save bandwidth and reduces clutter by avoiding many "me too" posts but it can be abused with ease by some people who will create sock puppets to give their inane comments many: 'likes' so that they may claim to be popular. Does that remind you of a certain lung disease on TCM?

Several forums which I visit allow one to upvote or downvote posts. Two have a: 'positive acknowledgement' button which means disapproval of a post requires one to post a cogent reply. All of these are anonymous. TCM was the only forum I have visited which revealed the usernames of those who used a button.
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LawrenceA
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Re: Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

Post by LawrenceA »

Masha wrote: November 29th, 2022, 7:57 pm
TikiSoo wrote: November 29th, 2022, 8:14 am Eh when the TCM Board added "like" and "thanks" buttons, I hated & resisted it. Now I see the value in the button...saves having to take up space with additional posts to simply say "thanks".
I feel that: 'like' buttons cheapen a site. I fell to using them on the TCM site because I have a chronic issue with my wrist which often makes it uncomfortable to type. I understand that it does save bandwidth and reduces clutter by avoiding many "me too" posts but it can be abused with ease by some people who will create sock puppets to give their inane comments many: 'likes' so that they may claim to be popular. Does that remind you of a certain lung disease on TCM?

Several forums which I visit allow one to upvote or downvote posts. Two have a: 'positive acknowledgement' button which means disapproval of a post requires one to post a cogent reply. All of these are anonymous. TCM was the only forum I have visited which revealed the usernames of those who used a button.
I miss the "Like" button. As has been mentioned, it's a nice shorthand way of acknowledging other people's posts when you don't personally have anything to add to it.
Watching until the end.
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LostHorizons
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Re: Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

Post by LostHorizons »

Masha wrote: November 29th, 2022, 7:57 pm
TikiSoo wrote: November 29th, 2022, 8:14 am Eh when the TCM Board added "like" and "thanks" buttons, I hated & resisted it. Now I see the value in the button...saves having to take up space with additional posts to simply say "thanks".
I feel that: 'like' buttons cheapen a site. I fell to using them on the TCM site because I have a chronic issue with my wrist which often makes it uncomfortable to type. I understand that it does save bandwidth and reduces clutter by avoiding many "me too" posts but it can be abused with ease by some people who will create sock puppets to give their inane comments many: 'likes' so that they may claim to be popular. Does that remind you of a certain lung disease on TCM?.
That making false accounts and liking them bit sounds like a bunch of different posters as well as many who I assume were paid to do it. The fact that one of them did not sign up to any of the new sites as far as I am aware is actually a good indicator that my suspicions were correct. If he is not paid to spam that stuff to those sites then he would have no reason to sign up.
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HoldenIsHere
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Re: Mr Drake's Duck (1951)

Post by HoldenIsHere »

Masha wrote: November 29th, 2022, 7:57 pm
TikiSoo wrote: November 29th, 2022, 8:14 am Eh when the TCM Board added "like" and "thanks" buttons, I hated & resisted it. Now I see the value in the button...saves having to take up space with additional posts to simply say "thanks".
I feel that: 'like' buttons cheapen a site. I fell to using them on the TCM site because I have a chronic issue with my wrist which often makes it uncomfortable to type. I understand that it does save bandwidth and reduces clutter by avoiding many "me too" posts but it can be abused with ease by some people who will create sock puppets to give their inane comments many: 'likes' so that they may claim to be popular. Does that remind you of a certain lung disease on TCM?
The N95 respirator masks that I use meet CDC guidelines to control exposure to that lung disease.

Alas, there is to my knowledge no online equivalent available to protect one from expoaure to this contagion on message boards.
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