Watch Ladies Who Do

Ladies Who Do is a British comedy film directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards that released in 1963. The movie is a satire on the hierarchical work culture prevalent at the time, as well as on the societal norms dictating the roles of men and women. The film stars Peggy Mount, Robert Morley, Harry H. Corbett, and many other British actors.

The plot follows the lives of four cleaning ladies - Hilda, Annie, Peggy, and Doris - who work at a struggling finance company in London. The ladies decide to take matters into their own hands when they discover that the company's finances are in dire straits. They devise a plan to skim a tiny fraction of the balances of the accounts they clean, in the hope of accumulating enough to save the company.

The film opens with a glimpse of the mundane lives of the cleaning ladies, who work hard to make ends meet. Peggy (Peggy Mount) is a devoted wife and doting mother, Hilda (Esma Cannon) is a sharp-tongued senior worker, Annie (Dora Bryan) is a hapless romantic, and Doris (Avril Elgar) is a straight-talking nervous wreck. The ladies are always short on cash and constantly struggle to make their wages stretch. Despite this, they are happy to have each other's company and share a camaraderie.

Their lives take a dramatic turn when they overhear a board meeting at the finance company they work at. The directors have invested their money in failing businesses, and as a result, the company is on the verge of going bankrupt. The ladies are devastated when they learn they could lose their jobs. No one else knows about the situation except the board members, who are not willing to admit their mistakes and take a public backlash.

One day, Peggy accidentally cleans the wrong account, and they discover a small fortune in this account. They realize that if they skim off a tiny fraction of all their accounts, they could accumulate enough money to save the company. Despite their initial reluctance to break the law, the ladies devise a plan to keep the money safe and away from the scrutiny of the company's auditors.

The plan involves snatching the account books, photocopying them, and building a secret room where they hide the surplus money from their cleaning efforts. The ladies struggle to accomplish the daunting task of managing the secretive operation, but they do so with humour and a sense of adventure.

The situation gradually spirals out of control as the ladies' initial success is threatened when they lose control of their accounting. They attract the attention of the police when a customer accidentally finds a sum of money that belongs to the finance company. The ladies are caught between a rock and a hard place as they struggle to keep their operation hidden and their jobs secure.

The film's humour comes from the ladies' relatable struggles and the unlikely situations they find themselves in. Peggy Mount's character, in particular, is hilarious, and her assertive personality contrasts the more flighty characters of her friends. Robert Morley provides comic relief as the bumbling boss who hasn't a clue what's happening under his nose.

Overall, Ladies Who Do is a delightful comedy that will take older viewers back to the sixties and provide younger viewers with an insight into the social norms and work culture of this time. It is an underdog story, a heist story, and a relatable story rolled into one, and it will have viewers rooting for the cleaning ladies from start to finish.