A 1975 Disney film set in London in the 1920s starring Peter Ustinov, Helen Hayes, Clive Revill, Derek Nimmo, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw, Natasha Pyne, Roy Kinnear, Joss Ackland, and Deryck Guyler. Lord Southmere steals the "Lotus X" formula from China on microfilm, then hides it in a dinosaur skeleton in the Natural History Museum. He then loses his memory, and can't remember exactly where he hid it, so a group of nannies try to find it before the Chinese can reclaim it.
This film contains examples of:
- Easy Amnesia: Lord Southmere keeps getting clonked on the head by bricks, causing him to lose/regain his memory.
- Grandma's Recipe: What the MacGuffin turns out to be.
- Mistaken for Spies: Lord Southmere keeps insisting that he's not a spy, just an ordinary businessman. However, nobody else believes him; as his (former) nanny points out, he would say that if he was a spy.
- My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: The Chinese guards are tricked into breaking the dungeon walls to show who is the strongest in order for the nannies to escape.
- Not My Driver: Lord Southmere is kidnapped by the Chinese.
- Parasol of Pain: Lord Southmere's umbrella is apparently a gun in disguise, although we only see him threaten someone, and not actually fire it.
- Also, normal umbrellas and handbags are the general weapons of choice for the nannies.
- Photo Doodle Recognition: The Chinese soldiers trying to catch Lord Southmere before he leaves China spot him through his disguise by scribbling a Fu Manchu moustache and a coolie hat onto his photo.
- Stiff Upper Lip: Lord Southmere remains calm and polite throughout the movie, despite being knocked out and locked in a dungeon.
- Yellowface: None of the named Chinese characters are played by Chinese actors; instead, we get Peter Ustinov in a Fu Manchu-esque getup, and Bernard Bresslaw and Clive Revill as his henchmen.
