Instead of the usual storyline of a young American's trials and tribulations, while studying at Oxbridge, the director had decided to twist the narrative by casting the young, and then up and coming German actor, Hardy Kruger as the Teutonic, blue eyed and blond exchange student, whose naivety and ignorance about the cultural and esoteric mysteries and nuances of Cambridge University life, ruffles the feathers of the stuffy, snooty middle class fellow students. The major problem here is that Kruger looks as if he's in his thirties, ditto his fellow student, lantern jawed, and plummy voiced Ronald Lewis. Even Kruger's romantic interest, Sylvia Sims, the 1950's 'English Rose' of the Rank film studios, looks less like a young student, but at least her charm and looks kept me awake during the film which was tedious in the extreme. The film is more about highlighting caricatures of undergraduate life, where much boozing and 'wenching' goes on in jazz clubs and where students seem to behave like wayward juveniles as they perpetually get themselves into scrapes with the college authorities. The director presents Kruger and Lewis as undergraduate stereotypes of young men behaving badly as they engage in 'silly antics' in their 'free time' and during the annual bore, the so called 'rag week.' The usual 'ho ho ho' climbing over walls by our two 'Romeo's' after midnight to reach their student accommodation while drunk, is another tick boxing exercise by the director in presenting students as immature and innocent twerps, who find their sole pleasure in extra curricular activities! Yes, there were the delightful views of students punting along the river, but the whole film was yawn inducing. It was definitely a second feature and forgettable film.
Review of Bachelor of Hearts
