Vice Versa is a 1948

1948 in film

The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...

 British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 written and directed by Peter Ustinov

Peter Ustinov

Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...

. It is the third screen adaptation of the 1882 novel of the same name by F. Anstey. The film was produced by Two Cities Films

Two Cities Films

Two Cities Films was a British film production company. Formed in 1937, it was originally envisaged as a production company operating in the two cities of London and Rome which gave the company its name....

 and distributed by General Film Distributors

General Film Distributors

General Film Distributors , was a British film distribution company based in London. It was established in 1935 by the British producer C. M. Woolf together with J. Arthur Rank. The company was incorporated in Rank's General Cinema Finance Corporation in 1936, but continued to operate under its...

.

The plot was updated and Americanized

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for a 1988 version with the same title starring Judge Reinhold

Judge Reinhold

Judge Reinhold is an American actor, perhaps best known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause trilogy.-Early life:...

 and Fred Savage

Fred Savage

Fredrick Aaron "Fred" Savage is an American actor, director and producer of television and film.He is best known for his role as Kevin Arnold in the American television series The Wonder Years and as the grandson in The Princess Bride...

. The 1972 novel Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday is a classic comedic children’s novel written by Mary Rodgers first published in the USA in 1972, and adapted for film several times.-Plot:...

by Mary Rodgers

Mary Rodgers

Mary Rodgers is an American composer of musicals and an author of children's books. She is a daughter of composer Richard Rodgers and his wife, Dorothy Rodgers, as is her sister, Linda Rodgers Emory...

, which itself was adapted for the screen in 1976 and 2003, is a variation of the same theme.

Plot

During the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, unscrupulous Marmaduke Paradine steals the Garuda Stone, the magical eye of an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n idol, which grants one wish to each possessor. He had been warned that the thief of the stone would have bad luck; convinced by the time he returns to England, he gives it to his former brother-in-law, widower Paul Bultitude.

Paul, a wealthy stockbroker, cannot understand why his eldest son Dick is reluctant to return to boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 after a holiday. Paul recalls the carefree days of his youth and casually wishes he could take Dick's place while holding the stone. As a result, he finds himself looking just like his son. When Dick realizes what has happened, the neglected boy uses his wish to take on his father's appearance, eager to enjoy the perks of being an adult.

Dick sends his protesting father off to school, while he throws parties, flirts with Alice, the maid, and even carries on with his father's girlfriend Fanny Verlayne. Meanwhile, Paul's pompous behavior soon antagonizes his classmates and the disciplinarian headmaster, Dr. Grimstone. He also puzzles Grimstone's daughter Dulcie, who cannot understand why her once-attentive beau seems to be smitten with a much-older Fanny.

Paul escapes the bullying at school and returns home, only to overhear Paradine tell Fanny how he plans to trick Dick into signing away control of his horseless carriage company. He pleads with his son to restore them back to their proper bodies, but Dick cannot remember where he left the stone. Fortunately, Paul finally finds it in the hands of another of his sons and gets him to wish things back. Chastened by his experience, Paul becomes more understanding of Dick's situation.

Cast

• Roger Livesey
  Roger Livesey
  Roger Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He is most often remembered for the three Powell & Pressburger films in which he starred: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going! and A Matter of Life and Death...
  
   ..... Paul Bultitude
• Anthony Newley
  Anthony Newley
  Anthony George Newley was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock and roll and stage and screen acting.-Early life:...
  
   ..... Dick Bultitude
• Petula Clark
  Petula Clark
  Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...
  
   ..... Dulcie Grimstone
• Kay Walsh
  Kay Walsh
  Kay Walsh was an English actress and dancer. She grew up in Pimlico, raised by her grandmother....
  
   ..... Fanny Verlayne
• Hugh Dempster
  Hugh Dempster
  Hugh Dempster was a British theatre and film actor.Born in London, Dempster began his screen career in the silent film era...
  
   ..... Colonel Ambrose
• David Hutcheson ..... Marmaduke Paradine
• James Robertson Justice
  James Robertson Justice
  James Robertson Justice was a popular British character actor in British films of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.-Biography:...
  
   ..... Dr. Grimstone
• Patricia Raine ..... Alice
• Joan Young ..... Mrs. Grimstone

Critical response

At the time of its release, the critic for Daily Mirror wrote, "Peter Ustinov has deliberately exaggerated in the film. This may bring him into conflict with lovers of the original story. But the fact remains that this spectacular burlesque has many novel touches and gets the laughs. Personally, I enjoyed myself, and I think you will." Monthly Film Bulletin

Monthly Film Bulletin

The Monthly Film Bulletin was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 to April 1991. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those with a narrow arthouse release. The MFB was edited in the mid-1950s by David Robinson, in the late...

said, "It is funny in patches, but goes on far too long; and the director, who also wrote the screenplay, would have been wiser to cut some of his own additions [to the book]. Anthony Newley . . . is excellent in a long and exacting part, and Petula Clark is attractive as the headmaster's daughter, but it is sad to see as good an actor as Roger Livesey with nothing to do but make an ass of himself." In later years, Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...

observed, "Parts of it are silly, but much of it is inspired and hilarious."