La Rue was the UK's pre-eminent drag artist of the era and this was his only movie. This is a farce set in France in the early days of World War 2, as Germany invades and soldier La Rue, a third-rate music hall performer before being drafted, finds himself separated from his unit, in full female attire. He finds refuge in a girl's school (with only 5 pupils!) headed by mannish Bowers and her assistant de la Tour, channelling Joyce Grenfell, and keeps up his disguise. Plenty of double entendres and light-hearted banter about rape, but not a trace of wit. La Rue makes a hideous woman, although…
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