This Happy Breed (1944)

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

Anthony Havelock-Allan (adaptation)
David Lean (adaptation)

Release Date:

12 April 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Noel Coward's attempt to show how the ordinary people lived between the wars. Just after WWI the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs...

Plot Keywords:

1920s | Mother Daughter Estrangement | Family Relationships | Slice Of Life | WWI Veteran

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Robert Newton	...	Frank Gibbons
Celia Johnson	...	Ethel Gibbons
Amy Veness	...	Mrs. Flint
Alison Leggatt	...	Aunt Sylvia
Stanley Holloway	...	Bob Mitchell
John Mills	...	Billy Mitchell
Kay Walsh	...	Queenie Gibbons
Eileen Erskine	...	Vi
John Blythe	...	Reg Gibbons
Guy Verney	...	Sam Leadbitter
Betty Fleetwood	...	Phyllis Blake
Merle Tottenham	...	Edie

Also Known As:

Noel Coward's This Happy Breed (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

Germany:105 min | USA:115 min | UK:114 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1996) | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Alderbrook Road, Clapham, London, England, UK

Company:

Noel Coward-Cineguild

Trivia:

Billy works his work up in the Navy through the film. When he is first seen, he is a Leading Seaman/ Rate having a 3rd Class Quarters Rating in Gunnery. At Reg's wedding, he is now a Petty Officer, with 2 stripes (chevrons) indicating 10 Years Good Conduct, and is still working in Gunnery. When he comes to tell the Gibbons, he has found Queenie, he is now a Sub-Lieutenant, having made the transition from the ranks to the Officer Class.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the furniture is being taken into the kitchen in the opening scenes an extra is reflected in the glass of the kitchen door just after Sylvia enters with the groceries.

Quotes:

Frank Gibbons: She didn't pass on, pass over, or pass out! She died!

Movie Connections:

References The Broadway Melody (1929)

Soundtrack:

For He's A Jolly Good Fellow

Painted in broad strokes to the detriment of emotional involvement but the focus on the lead two (characters & actors) provide enough high spots to be worth watching

When Frank Gibbons returns from the killing fields of World War I, he rejoins his wife Ethel and together they move with their family into a new house in the suburbs of London. The year is 1919 and everything looks rosy for the future. The future holds joy in the shape of children, marriages and friends however it also holds disappointment with, erm, children, marriages, strikes, death and, tragically, more war. Over the following decades we trace the trials and fortunes of the Gibbons family against the backdrop of a changing Britain.

One could argue that Noel Coward may not have been the best placed to write about the live of an ordinary family but he did it reasonably well in his play from what I am told. In this version though the material is stretched to the point of being simplistic as it attempts to cover far too much ground and emotion to be able to fit it into a running time of just over an hour and a half. The story is interesting enough and the amount going on means it is never really dull but the problem is that we never really get deep enough into the stories to be emotionally sold on any thread or character. It jumps so much that it cannot often allow time for subtle half-measures in the plotting and instead has to make sure that its points are heavy and obvious – again taking away from how recognisable the whole affair is. This is not to say that it doesn't have good points, but they come due to consistency in the telling and therefore rely heavily on Frank and Ethel to be core to the telling.

This also means that the film pretty much belongs to Newton and Johnson in the acting stakes. Together they share plenty of quiet moments that show an unspoken hurt or emotion that is more subtle that the events portrayed; they also have a natural chemistry that made me believe that they were a couple and had been for years. The support cast are OK but mostly they are involved in the more extreme plot threads and are forced to ditch patience and subtlety as a result – but then people like Mills, Holloway, Walsh, Leggat et al are still interesting enough to be worth watching and none of them give anything like a bad performance, but they pale beside the lead pair.

Overall this is a good film but it is painted in broad strokes across decades and this reduces the emotional impact and involvement that it has. There are moments of course and the story is interesting enough even with its flaws but the film relies heavily on the lead pair. Narrative wise the film is never better than when it is tightly focused on the hearts of Frank and Ethel and acting wise it is dominated by the solid chemistry between Newton and Johnson.