Bees in Paradise (1944, UK)

Somewhere in the South Atlantic there is an unknown island called Paradise Island, where women rule. Men are forced to kill themselves after two months of marriage. The community is based on the culture of bees, where the males are only drones.

But Arthur Askey and his fellow aircrew have to crash land on the island, and that complicates matters. Askey is recruited into the mating business, without at first realising how it will end. When he does realise, he is allowed to go in disguise briefly as a female servant of one of the woman; he helps out at a strange snooker game, on a table covered with a leopard-skin fabric.

The costume department did him well with a frilly petticoat under his short uniform, as we see when he has to retrieve a snooker ball from the centre of the table.

One of Askey's signature songs was The Bee Song, which probably inspired this film's theme.

HF November 2006

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