Based on Jerome K. Jerome’s best-selling 1889 comic novel of the same name, Three Men In A Boat earned screenwriters Hubert Gregg (After the Ball, Stars in your Eyes) and Vernon Harris (Oliver!, Born to Sing) a BAFTA nomination on release and was the 12th highest grossing release of 1957. 

Directed by Ken Annakin (Monte Carlo or Bust, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines), Three Men In A Boat stars Laurence Harvey (Women of Twilight, Room at The Top), David Tomlinson (Mary Poppins, The Love Bug) and Jimmy Edwards (The Bed Sitting Room, Innocents in Paris) as three Edwardian men-about-town want to get away from it all and decide to take a boat ride on the Thames. 

Harris (Jimmy Edwards), J (David Tomlinson), and George (Laurence Harvey) decide to take a holiday boating up the Thames to Oxford. George is happy to spend time away from his desk at the bank, Harris is glad to get away from Mrs. Willis (Martita Hunt) who is pressing him to marry her daughter Clara (Adrienne Corri) and ‘J’ is simply keen to take a break from his wife, Etherbertha (Noelle Middleton). Quickly finding themselves in all manner of complications thanks to the Hampton Court maze, tents, rain, locks and Henley Regatta, the accident-prone threesome feel their luck is changing upon meeting three girls; Sophie (Shirley Eaton) and sisters Bluebell (Jill Ireland) and Primrose (Lisa Gastoni), who are also taking a ride up the river. However, things again take a turn for the worse with the surprise appearance of Mrs. Willis, her daughter and Ethelbertha…

Though Jerome’s story has been adapted multiple times for film and television, including notable versions from Ealing Studios and the BBC, Ken Annakin’s take on the source material offers a halcyonic innocence and acts as a refreshing antidote for these less carefree times.