April in Portugal (1955)

April in Portugal (1955)

April in Portugal was a 20-minute travelogue short produced in color by Warwick Film Productions in the spring of 1955.  According to IMDB, Trevor Howard narrated the feature, Jocelyn appeared as a guide, and popular Portuguese singer Amalia Rodrigues appeared as herself.  The song Coimbra (aka April in Portugal) had been a hit song for Rodrigues.  Antonio Dos Santos, Portugal's #1 matador at the time, also made an appearance.

Apparently, this is the first time that Warwick made use of Jocelyn on film after signing her to a contract in July of 1954, but they did not even give her any lines!  In the December 17, 1955 issue of the British magazine Picturegoer, it noted:

"Yes, Jackie Lane's still waiting.  After the song and dance that accompanied the announcement of her being signed as a contract artist to Warwick Films, it's a bit of an anticlimax to see Jackie making her debut in a travel documentary.

And she doesn't say a word.  Remember?  We were making her study hard, said Warwick importantly.  We plan to groom her for stardom in her very first picture, it added. 

Jackie is a little impatient at the slow rate of her progress to stardom.  And naturally so.  But she probably realizes that, in the long run, it's better to go slowly than push ahead before she's quite ready."

IMDB says that April in Portugal was released in the U.S. on April 20, 1956.  Here is an advertisement where it was showing with The Eddy Duchin Story at Proctors Theater in Troy, NY beginning July 25, 1956 (similar ads ran in other cities around that time).

Note the tag line "Starring Jackie Lane the girl who shocked an Empire."  We will discuss this further in a future post, but the U.S. ad campaign was trying to exploit an incident that had occurred in the fall of 1955.  Jocelyn made international headlines after being blasted in the London press for a daring dress that she wore to a royal premiere.  I wonder how many people in New Rochelle, NY recognized "Jackie Lane" as their old classmate Jocelyn Bolton?

I have not yet been able to locate this documentary or any clips or photos from it.