Year Released: 2022
Directed by: Anthony Fabian
Starring: Lesley Manville, Alba Baptista, Lucus Bravo, Jason Isaacs, Ellen Thomas, Lambert Wilson
(PG, 115 min.)
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

“Dior is not just a gown. It’s all the elegance, and the savvy, and all that.” – Ada Harris

Our modern day Cinderella is a middle aged war widow, but she’s a bit of a fairy godmother as well. Potential Prince Charmings sometimes disappoint, but others are hidden in plain sight.

Forget going to a ball. Mrs. Harris’s dream is a Christian Dior gown. The humble cleaning woman spots it in a wealthy client’s closet and is transfixed. After receiving a surprise war widow’s pension, she scrimps and saves to afford the 500 pound “frock” as she calls it, scrubbing floors, working into the night doing her “invisible mending,” and once betting 100 quid on a greyhound called Haute Couture, just because of its name.

She flies to Paris, seeing the glittering city from above, but from there on it isn’t too glamorous. The sleazy bus station waiting room is filled with what seem to be drunken layabouts, one of whom offers to escort her the several mile walk to Christian Dior’s. We wince at her innocent acceptance.

***

As Different Drummer herself has observed, it is often the paid-by-the-hour shop ladies at prestige boutiques who are the real snobs, and so it is with Mrs. Harris’s experience at Dior’s.

Ada Harris: Excuse me, dear. Where would I find the frocks?

Claudette Colbert: I fear you have the wrong address, madame. I will call someone to show you the way.

Ada Harris: No. No. No. Sorry. I’m after a frock. One of them five hundred pounds ones. (as she’s being made to leave Dior) Hang on a minute. I’ve come miles. I saved every penny, scrubbing floors, and I don’t know what, so I can buy this frock.

Claudette Colbert: (in French and English) A Christian Dior gown is not for pennies. Have her removed at once.

Ada Harris: (as she places the tightly bundled rolls of cash on the counter). Right. You think I ain’t got the money. There!

Andre Fauvel: (in French) It’s real money, Madame Colbert. If only everyone could do the same.

Something Mrs. Harris is quite aware of, since the very wealthy owner of the Dior frock she first admired has never seemed to find the time to pay her humble cleaning woman.

And it is the cash itself, along with Mrs. Harris’s determination, which opens doors for her, since the elite Dior establishment is running perilously low on said product. (Mrs. Harris observes when she sees Dior himslef that he looks like her milkman.)

Before long she has charmed almost all the employees with her truthfulness and unpretentious spirit. It seems that Dior’s employees are also a bit disgusted with their cadre of wealthy, snobbish clients who have such casual disregard for those who labor intensively to make each creation a splendid one of a kind gown.

And it turns out that a few of the employees are not so enamored with their “exquisite” life in Paris. At least two of them, one the most stunning model, Natasha (Alba Baptista), would prefer to be home reading a book. And not just any book, but one written by Jean Paul Sarte.

In fact, Natasha and Andre (Lucus Bravo) have quite a discussion of existentialism over a dinner Mr. Harris cooks for them – Toad in the Hole, one of her husband Eddie’s favorites. A unique pairing, yes?

Being and Not Being is the title of one book they discuss. Mrs. Harris is not overly impressed:

“I like to curl up with a good mystery meself.”

But Andre and Natasha begin to interest her when they say she is not just “ a cleaner from Battersea” as she defines herself, but “a cleaner who dreams of the most beautiful gown in the world.”

As Ada Harris herself says, “We need our dreams. Now more than ever.”

And that is true in 2023 as well as post war Europe. Time to stream this “fairy tale for adults,” as exquisite as any of Dior’s gowns.

Here’s a little trivia to go along with it.

Costume designer Jenny Beavan utilized Dior's historical archives, which contained the designer's original sketchbooks, workbooks, and patterns, to recreate the Dior dresses seen in the movie. Some were vintage pieces borrowed from the house of Dior, some were replicas, and some were inventions designed in the Dior tradition.

500 GBP, the cost of Mrs. Harris's client's Dior gown in 1957, is approximately equivalent to $12,000 in 2022. $1 USD in 1957 was worth about $10.59 USD in 2022, making Mrs. Harris' green dress (430 GBP) about $4,553.70 USD and the red dress (500 GBP) $5,292 USD. For context, the average new home in the US in 1957 was about $12,000 USD and a new car went for between $2,000-8,000 USD.

Christian Dior himself died of a heart attack on October 24th 1957, the same year this film is set. Although only 52 years old at his time of death he nonetheless looked much older, much like the character in this film.

Interestingly both this film and the 1992 Angela Lansbury starring television movie were both primarily filmed in Budapest due to its architectural resemblance to parts of post war Paris.

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁 🥁 🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

The crux of this comedy is how Mrs. Harris undercuts all the class snobbery around her, and how even the supercilious French respond positively. Actually, that part of the story may be the the realm of fairy tales, but we enjoy it nonetheless.

The discussion of existentialism and Mrs. Harris’s dinner of home-made Toad in the Hole – even more strange when translated into French – is the perfect ironic pairing.

You can cook up a French dinner if you like instead, one easy and not snobbish, such as Different Drummer’s own Pot in the Fire, and/or try Mrs. Harris’s Toad in The Hole also from Different Drummer’s Appetite for Murder: A Mystery Lover’s Cookbook.

After all, it was husband Eddies favorite.

Here is a little background on the name:

First off - and happily! - there is no record of the dish ever being baked with toads substituting the meat!

The reference to toads is believed to be referring to the similarity in appearance to toads lying in wait of prey in their burrows, their heads visible against the earth. Toad-in-the-hole was originally invented as a way to stretch out small amounts of meat; perhaps the name was a tongue-in -cheek reference to something which wouldn’t really whet the appetite.

There is one story which purports to explain the name, but it’s probably no more than a local legend. It’s claimed that the name Toad-in-the-Hole originates from the town of Alnmouth in Northumberland, where the local golf course was overrun with Natterjack toads.

Once, during a tournament, a golfer putted his ball only for it to leap back out before an angry toad raised its head, having butted the ball out of the hole it had been sleeping in. The chef at the local hotel devised a dish to commemorate this, baking sausages in batter to appear like toads poking their heads out of golf holes.

Probably just made up, but still a funny story! –Wendy Carolan

Toad in the Hole

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup self-rising flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

Salt

Coarse black pepper and Cayenne to taste

Pinch each ginger and nutmeg (optional)

8 thick, short sausages of your choice

1 3/4 ounces drippings

1 small onion, thinly sliced

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. To make batter, sift both flours and salt into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the center. Add combined eggs and milk gradually; whisk until smooth. Add seasonings. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Prick sausages all over with a fork. Place half the drippings in a shallow 6-cup capacity ovenproof dish. Place in oven to heat while preparing sausages. Heat remaining drippings in a large frying pan and cook the sausages for 5 minutes until well browned. Transfer to a plate; add onions to pan and cook for 3 minutes, until soft.

Arrange sausages and onion in the heated dish. Quickly pour batter over sausages and return to oven for 30 minutes, until batter is set and golden. Serve immediately with mustard.

Appetite for Murder: A Mystery Lover’s Cookbook