This Happy Breed (1944)

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

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

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:

Middle Class | Mother Daughter Estrangement | 1920s | British | 1930s

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Charles King	...	Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
Bessie Love	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Laurence Olivier	...	Narrator (uncredited)
Anita Page	...	Herself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
David Lean

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Noel Coward		play (uncredited)
Anthony Havelock-Allan		adaptation
David Lean		adaptation
Ronald Neame		adaptation

Produced by
Noel Coward	....	producer
Ronald Neame	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Muir Mathieson		(uncredited)
Clifton Parker		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Ronald Neame		(photographed by)

Film Editing by
Jack Harris

Art Direction by
C.P. Norman

Makeup Department
Tony Sforzini	....	makeup artist
Vivienne Walker	....	hair stylist
Marjorie Whittle	....	assistant hair stylist (uncredited)

Production Management
Anthony Havelock-Allan	....	in charge of production
Kenneth Horne	....	production manager (as Ken Horne)
Jack Martin	....	production manager
Robert C. Foord	....	assistant production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
George Pollock	....	assistant director
Tony Hearne	....	third assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
G.E. Calthrop	....	artistic supervisor: Mr. Coward
Harold Hurdell	....	draughtsman (uncredited)
Arthur Lawson	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
John Cook	....	sound recordist (as John Cooke)
Desmond Dew	....	sound recordist
C.C. Stevens	....	sound recordist
Cyril Crowhurst	....	dubbing editor (uncredited)
Roy Day	....	sound camera operator (uncredited)
Walter R. Day	....	assistant sound (uncredited)
Percy Dayton	....	boom operator (uncredited)
Anthony J. Kay	....	dubbing crew (uncredited)
Gus Lloyd	....	assistant boom operator (uncredited)
Gordon K. McCallum	....	boom operator (uncredited)
George Paternoster	....	assistant boom operator (uncredited)
Winston Ryder	....	sound camera operator (uncredited)
Alan Whatley	....	dubbing crew (uncredited)

Special Effects by
W. Percy Day	....	special effects (as Percy Day)
George Blackwell	....	special effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
George Blackwell	....	models (uncredited)
Charles Staffell	....	back projection (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Guy Green	....	camera operator
Jim Body	....	focus puller (uncredited)
B. Francke	....	camera operator (uncredited)
David Lytton	....	clapper loader (uncredited)
George Minassian	....	focus puller (uncredited)
Eugene H.E. Pizey	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Hilda Collins	....	dress supervisor

Editorial Department
Margery Saunders	....	assembly cutter (uncredited)
Norah Walsh	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Muir Mathieson	....	musical director
Muir Mathieson	....	conductor (uncredited)

Other crew
Joan Bridge	....	associate technicolor colour director
Harold Haysom	....	technician: for the Technicolor Company
Natalie Kalmus	....	technicolor color director
Paddy Arnold	....	assistant continuity (uncredited)
Maggie Unsworth	....	continuity (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Noel Coward-Cineguild (in association with)
• Two Cities Films (as a Prestige Production)

Distributors

• Eagle-Lion Distributors Limited (1944) (UK) (theatrical)
• Universal Pictures (1947) (USA) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2012) (USA) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2012) (Spain) (DVD)
• MediaOutlet.com (????) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• London Symphony Orchestra, The (LSO)  music played by

Also Known As:

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:

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

Filming Locations:

Alderbrook Road, Clapham, London, England, UK

Company:

Noel Coward-Cineguild

Trivia:

The comment early in the film about the cat and buttering its paws comes from a technique used when a cat moves house. According to this, if the cat has butter on its paws it will stop and lick it off. As cats are very clean creatures, the butter on its paws and the bits of dirt/ dust/ debris that will inevitably stick to it will annoy the cat. The cat will sit down to clean itself and, in doing so, will take in its new surroundings creating a mental map of where its new home is and helping it to make the adjustment to its new surroundings.

Goofs:

Continuity: Queenie makes tea for Ethel and Sylvia (DVD Timing at 33.37) pouring cold water on the milk.

Quotes:

Ethel Gibbons:There will always be wars as long as men are such fools as to want to go to them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Overlord (1975)

Soundtrack:

A Life on the Ocean Wave

Fantastic, Mesmerising history lesson

This film by David Lean takes us on a journey from 1919 after the First World war towards into WW2. But focuses not on the fighting, but on the home front, and the effects of a changing world.

I love this films ability to take you along with the day to day routine of a large, close knit family. Youre there with their smiles and tears then then in an instant you feel the heartache of their tragedy.

Robert Newton has never been better - a truly mesmerising performance. Forget Long John Silver (although another very fine performance).

The rest of the cast are a brilliant complement to Robert Newton. John Mills is on top form in a cameo performance.

Did David Lean ever make a bad film?

The only down side to the film is you see how great the British Film Industry once was, and now its virtually gone.