Old-fashioned? Arch dialogue? Stiff acting? Viewable only as an historical document? Guilty on all counts, but this film still captivates. Made during the second World War, it was probably intended as a flag-waver, a morale booster for the worn-down citizens of Britain, but in fact is much more than that. The story (Noel Coward) deals with the lives and times of an ordinary family in 'between the wars' London. There is nothing dramatic, just the everyday events and the weddings, births and funerals that visit us all. However, there are some wonderfully quiet scenes - the father-to-son talk before the son's wedding is especially notable for its old-fashioned moral uprightness, the way the camera lingers in an empty room when the family learns of a terrible road accident, and Frank's gentle chat with his neighbour over a few glasses of whisky as they prepare to go their separate ways. Director David Lean handles these with care and reserve. The way the family deals with the mini-dramas that beset them was no doubt meant to say to the war-weary people that we may be a middling, grey little society with predictable ways, but it was worth fighting for. The film always leaves me a little melancholy, missing an age that still existed in many ways when I was a youngster. No doubt to a modern cinema audience that can't manage without an explosion or car-chase every ten minutes this would be regarded as dull and boring, but I love its charm.
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g-hbe15 October 2006
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The Gibbons family is "This Happy Breed," a 1944 film starring Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, Sterling Holloway, John Mills and Kay Walsh. The story begins with the end of World War I in 1919 with the return of Frank Gibbons (Newton) to his family - wife Ethel (Johnson), son Reg (John Blythe) and daughters Queenie (Kay Walsh) and Vi (Eileen Erskine) as they begin their life in a new home. The next 20 years bring weddings, births, tragedy, and death, as it does to all of us. Queenie is being courted by a sailor, Bill (Mills) who wants to marry her, but she wants to better her class and says she can't be happy with him; Vi falls in love and marries, as does Reg. Frank becomes a travel agent after the war and finds that one of his service friends (Holloway) lives next door. They become best buddies and provide the film's humor as they attempt to drink in secret. Ethel meanwhile has to cope with two somewhat difficult characters: the hypochondriacal Aunt Sylvia (Alison Leggatt) and Ethel's mother (Amy Veness) who live with them.
One thing interesting about British films that deal with the war - "In Which We Serve," "The 49th Parallel," and this one, for instance - one is made aware of the hardships, loss, sacrifice and sadness, while American films have a much more romantic quality to them. Though "This Happy Breed" ends just at the dawn of World War II, there is discussion of the European situation, fascism, and a general fear of another war in light of what they all went through in the last one.
"This Happy Breed" is another triumph, though an unsung one, for two wonderful artists - David Lean and Noel Coward, who worked together in this film, "Blithe Spirit" and "In Which We Serve" and had so many brilliant accomplishments on their own. The Gibbons feel like a real family, with a no-nonsense, hard-working matriarch, her more relaxed, emotional husband, and three children who go their separate ways in life and meet turmoil, normalcy, or tragedy. The most touching scene in the movie for me was the talk that Frank has with Reg before his wedding. "Always put your wife first," Frank says after he finally gets Reg to stop kidding around and listen to him.
I wasn't expecting this slice of life to be a tear-jerker, but it was, due to the beautiful acting of Celia Johnson and Robert Newton especially. They are the rocks of the film, providing its center. When Queenie runs off with a married man, she is shunned and disowned by Ethel, yet one can tell just by her movements that she is as heartbroken and worried as she is angry. Frank seems to accept what she says, yet once he's alone, he breaks down and sobs.
"This Happy Breed" sneaks up on you; before you know it, you're involved with the Gibbons. They're the stuff Britain is made of, the stuff that gets the country through its darkest times. A little gem; don't miss it. Oh, and I knew that was Laurence Olivier's voice in the beginning. -
AlsExGal20 December 2022This British Technicolor domestic drama from Eagle-Lion and director David Lean charts 20 years in the life of the Gibbons family, from 1919 to 1939. Husband Frank (Robert Newton) has just returned from fighting in WW1, and he and his wife Ethel (Celia Johnson) are moving into a new home in a crowded working class neighborhood. We follow them as they have children, raise them, and deal with the various ups and downs of family life, all leading up to the outbreak of WW2. Also featuring John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Holloway, Eileen Erskine, John Blythe, Amy Veness, Alison Leggatt, and the voice of Laurence Olivier.
Based on a play by Noel Coward, this bears some thematic similarities to 1933's Cavalcade. This is more accessible though, and certainly much better made. Technically the movie is a marvel, with perhaps the best looking color cinematography, courtesy of Ronald Neame, up to this point in film. Lean's direction is also very admirable, with interesting and innovative camera movement. There's one truly outstanding scene wherein a person who has bad news to share exits out of the back door into a garden to relay the message, only the camera stays inside the house, moving a bit, looking out into the backyard but not seeing the news being delivered, all the while loud, upbeat music is blaring from a radio. It's a shattering scene that depicts the often banal setting for life-changing developments. Unfortunately I found much of the rest of the movie uninvolving. The acting is good, very natural and played in the medium to low register. I just couldn't bring myself to get emotionally connected with much of it. -
Marxbr102716 August 2002This 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. -
The movie narrates the happenings of a British family since the first world war (1914-18) until the end second world war (1939-45) . The parents (Robert Newton and Celia Johnson) , the troubled and rebel daughter (Kay Walsh) , the friendly neighbor (Stanley Holloway) , the seaman son (John Mills) and others . Meanwhile , being reflected the course of time and are succeeding various historic deeds , thus : the first and second world wars , the soldiers recruitment , death of the king George , the jolly reception to Minister Chamberlain after the useless Munich Convention with Hitler , the trenches digging in preventing the bombing over London by the Germans .
The movie is interpreted by the greatest English actors with important careers . Robert Newton (Treasure island) , Celia Johnson (Brief encounter) , John Mills (Daughter of Ryan), Kay Walsh (Oliver Twist), Stanley Holloway (My fair lady) . Colorful and glittering cinematography by Ronald Neame , a future director with many successes (Adventure of the Poseidon) . Musical conducting by Muir Mathieson , habitual of English classic films , as he was director of symphonic orchestra of London . The picture begins and finishes with a camera travelling from exterior and interior home what it subsequently would be copied in a lot of films (for example : The Family by the director Ettore Scola) . The motion picture was perfectly directed by David Lean considered the greatest British filmmaker . Rating : Awesome . Above average. -
fleetstar5 November 2004This film caught me completely unawares. I had never heard of it until it presented itself on daytime television one afternoon. I really dislike this type of film, as I find most of the time is spent on mediocre happenings in predictable situations. (Ordinary peoples lives are very boring). I was therefore amazed at the fact that I couldn't leave it, Maybe it's because I am getting older or maybe the people in this film reminded me of the adults of the 1950's when I was a child.
The acting is absolutely superb, you really believe in this family and the ups and downs of their lives. The direction of David Lean polishes the excellent cast performance, what more can I say ! ......Fantastic..... -
What really boosts THIS HAPPY BREED into the "superior" category of British films is the direction by David Lean and the two central performances by CELIA JOHNSON and ROBERT NEWTON as the heads of a rather ordinary household living the provincial life between two World Wars. And what is surprising is that this '44 film from the U.K. uses Technicolor in an age when most films, unless they were spectacular musicals, were filmed in B&W. The color photography adds a handsome touch to the otherwise unspectacular story that is more a character study of a marriage and family relationships.
CELIA JOHNSON does a magnificent job as the mother who raises a daughter (KAY WALSH) unsatisfied with her family's social status, who yearns to rise above what she perceives as too provincial and runs off with a married man. It's just one of the many episodic tales in this domestic drama but it's played with such intensity by Johnson that the reunion scene toward the end is heartbreaking to watch.
All of the saga which stretches between the two wars is episodic, told in a series of vignettes which I imagine were done in blackout style on the stage, for which the tale was written. But Lean has successfully managed the transfer to the screen and all of the performances are top notch, particularly ROBERT NEWTON as the concerned father, JOHN MILLS as a man caught in an unrequited love affair and STANLEY HOLLOWAY who provides a good deal of comic relief as a boozy neighborhood friend of Newton.
Noel Coward evidently had more success in telling domestic tales with sharp observation of characters than Edna Ferber did with her own American sagas in which her characters seemed to get lost among all the vast territory she covered.
Summing up: Well worth watching for the performances alone. -
An outstanding David Lean film examining England between the World Wars. It deals with the Gibbons family and their lives during this tumultuous time.
Robert Newton and Celia Johnson are absolutely fabulous as the couple with 3 children. A stellar supporting cast enables this picture to be even better. We experience happiness, tragedy, the Charleston, general strikes hitting an endearing British people.
We see a family in crisis. The mother is quite a character, and even with her morbid ways, we can chuckle as this is what occurs as our seniors get older. A strong family structure committed to family values is terribly hurt by the actions of the youngest daughter, but in life there is redemption, and that is admirably shown in this film.
Life goes on. The question of what happens when we leave our homes and new occupants come in, is there some sort of link between the old and new? This is a fascinating question and this period piece, shot in bright textures, well answers this. Yes, we keep up that stiff upper lip. -
Lejink14 October 2022David Lean's affectionate family portrait of a working-class London family, right from its establishing panoramic shot of the city panning all the way down and into the no doubt two-up two-down marital household of Robert Newton and Celia Johnson, affords the viewer a near fly-on-the-wall insight into everyday life between the wars. The daily lives of the couple and their family and neighbours are told in a realistic, near-documentary manner, the more so by the use of full-colour photograpy, colloquial, vernacular dialogue and easily recognisable characters and familial tensions against the backdrop of significant events in Britain at the time, such as the National Strike of 1924, the death of King George V, although oddly not the abdication of Edward VII and the false hope that followed Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's "Peace in our Time" Munich declaration as the prelude to the Second World War.
Look in any gift store today, almost everywhere in Britain and you'll see a Union Jack mug, plate, towel or even T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On" which pretty much sums up the underlying theme of the movie.
Newton and Johnson are the ordinary, average couple who share their house with their three soon-to-be-adult children and Johnson's whingeing old mother, who's forever bickering with their live-in widowed sister-in-law. Next door lives Newton's war-time drinking buddy played by Stanley Holloway while John Mills is also on hand as the young suitor to the older daughter, the rebellious Queenie, played by Kay Walsh.
Lean clearly has sympathy for the working-class he's depicting but at does at least show some contrary viewpoints to the norm with the other, more conventional daughter Vi's boyfriend and later husband spouting pro-Communist invective reflecting the Red Scare just after the end of the First World War and even a public Blackshirt rally by Oswald Mosley's fascist party in the early 30's. Such events as these and the afore-mentioned great strike of 1924 aren't however covered in any kind of detail, in fact they serve as little more than clues as to the passing of time.
The beating heart of the film is Celia Johnson's matriarchal figure. She espouses earthy common sense throughout but even her patience reaches its breaking point when her oldest daughter runs off with a married man, oh the shame of it! Newton puts in a doughty performance as the straight-arrow husband and interacts well not only wirh Johnson but slso Holloway.as "'im next door".
Perhaps the film lacks a little dramatic tension as it flits from episode to episode but there's no denying the quality of the acting, writing, cinematography and direction of this worthy and entertaining feature, which is worth viewing as much for its historical encapsulation of Britain between the wars as for its cinematic quality. -
jimbarr120 March 2006This Happy Breed is a truly magnificent film.The genre of showing the lives of ordinary people during times of great historical importance has been done often enough but seldom,perhaps never, better than in this adaptation of Noel Cowards play. The family around whom the film revolves are comfortable but the film's dialogue enables us to realise the hardships being endured by millions of others Britain between the wars. The drama is powerful but never over the top and the strength of character of 'ordinary people' in those difficult times is magnificently portrayed through the father's advice to his son and the mother's views on morality.This relative subtlety on the part of director David Lean works extremely well in conjunction with the gentle pace at which we are made aware of the passing of time and the attending events. The film's ending,too,is in keeping with the unsensational nature of the whole piece and leaves the viewer with the very satisfying feeling that he/she has just watched an enjoyable and significant piece of drama.
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1930s_Time_Machine1 January 2024Describing something as a soap is generally meant as an insult but soaps are the most popular form of entertainment and if done well like this they can be quite special. This is an uneventful story of ordinary everyday normal life turned into something spectacular.
What makes this film so special is how unspecial the family's life is. There's no world shattering events, no abject poverty to struggle through, no murders, conspiracies or crimes, just everyday life. Even the Technicolor is cleverly used to reinforce the drabness and ordinariness of life, but nevertheless life to be celebrated. David Lean however turns what could have been a stagey filmed theatre play into a beautiful big screen, big budget cinematic piece of art. It does take a while to get to know the characters. For the first hour you do feel it drags a little but like with any good soap, you'll be so glad you stick with it.
Watched today it's interesting to see how very similar the attitudes of this typical lower middle class family are to ours today. It's interesting to contrast these attitudes to the narrow-minded snobbery of the upper classes often portrayed as cold-hearted villains in American films of the early thirties or more pertinent to this film, BRIEF ENCOUNTER. It seems that us ordinary people haven't changed that much. This makes this old movie very accessible to us now.
And talking of American films of the early thirties, when some of the family go to see THE BROADWAY MELODY it looks absolutely ancient in context of what you yourself are watching now. How quickly film making techniques improved (but I still quite like BROADWAY MELODY). "I coornt understand a wuurd thuy say" says someone commenting on the American accents. Interesting how totally different the cockney accent was back then to now. Celia Johnson, although definitely not a cockney does an authentic pre-war accent which would sound as ridiculous now as would her own 1940s upper-class accent a lá BRIEF ENCOUNTER. -
bkoganbing25 March 2009Kind of overlapping the era of British history that his previous work Cavalcade had covered, Noel Coward wrote one of his most popular plays in The Happy Breed which premiered in London in 1942 as Great Britain was fighting for its life. This film adaption coming as it did in 1944 when the tide of the war had turned, almost seems to justify Coward's faith in his country and the pluck of its people.
The image we have today of Noel Coward is the ultra-sophisticate hanging around with royalty and other titled folks, amusing them with a sample of his acclaimed wit. But the kind of middle class background that the Gibbons and their neighbors the Mitchells come from is exactly where Noel Coward had his roots. His early years are covered in Cavalcade and the years overlap into This Happy Breed. Both films really ought to be seen back to back as a great sample of British social history.
Newly discharged veteran from the Great War, Robert Newton and his wife Celia Johnson buy their dream house on Sycamore Lane to raise their three children. By chance their neighbors happen to be Stanley Holloway, Newton's wartime buddy and his family the Mitchells. The film is the story of the Mitchells and the Gibbons and how their lives interconnect in the years between the World Wars. Their family situations are seen against the backdrop of the events of the times like the General Strike, the Depression and the formation of the Coalition National Government to fight it, and the death of King George V.
Anyone who expects the eye rolling Blackbeard from Robert Newton will be pleasantly surprised. Newton could be restrained if he had to, and in David Lean he certainly had a director that would rein in his excesses if it were ever necessary. What surprised me was that Noel Coward himself played the lead when This Happy Breed debuted in London. I certainly would have liked to have seen Coward's interpretation of the part.
Kay Walsh who was Mrs. David Lean at the time played the elder daughter Queenie for Newton and Johnson. John Mills who is a career Navy man and Holloway's son loves Walsh, but she's a naughty thing and out for a good time. Let's say I think Mills just might qualify for sainthood in his performance with what he put up with.
This Happy Breed is a great play with average folks that Mr. Average American, let alone Mr. Average British could identify with and it's great social commentary of an important era in history. -
davidmvining15 September 2020David Lean continues his burgeoning directing career by working again closely with Noel Coward, this time adapting one of his plays for the screen. Telling the story of a middle class British family from the end of one World War to the start of the next, This Happy Breed leans heavily on the themes that would resurface in Lean's later films about the conflicting and, at times, complimenting ideas of change and permanence. It also returns many of the actors that Lean worked with so well in In Which We Serve including John Mills and Celia Johnson.
After the close of The Great War, the Gibbons family moves into a house in the suburbs of London. Middle-aged Frank fought in the war while his wife, Ethel, and three children, Reg, Vi, and Queenie stayed behind. Their new neighbor is an old acquaintance of Frank's from the war and things seem to already be settling down into familiar old rhythms from before the four year conflict. Frank and Bob, his friend and neighbor, drink regularly with toasts to their different regiments, both of which, they decide, were the best in the world. Ethel runs the house with her mother and Frank's sister. It's the children who represent the changing world around them.
Frank and Ethel aren't interested in the burgeoning flapper culture, but Queenie is. Frank and Ethel aren't interested in the new political movements, most notably socialism, but Reg is. Vi is closest to her parents, but even she marries the young socialist friend of Reg, helping him to settle down at the same time. Over the years, the family steadily breaks apart for different reasons. Queenie runs off with a married man to France instead of marrying Bob's son Billy, a sailor in His Majesty's Navy. Reg and his wife get killed in a car crash. Everything seems to be disintegrating along with the newfound peace of Europe as Hitler rises to power and fascism comes to England on the street corners of London.
And yet, just on the eve of war with Neville Chamberlain returning to England with his successful plan for peace with Hitler, which was of course doomed to failure, the family begins to reassemble as best as it can when Queenie returns home, married to Billy, long after having been abandoned by her lover in France. There's a comfort to be found in the changes that have occurred through the two decades since the end of the last war and in the things that have remained the same at the same time. As Frank and Ethel clean out their house to move into the country, the mirror image of how the movie began with them moving in, they pause to reflect on their time there. England will always be England, they seem to conclude as their family functions as a metaphor for the country and the times they've lived through.
Made in the middle of the Second World War, there's a sense of propaganda about the film in telling the audience, who would be predominantly British, that despite all the changes that have come to their nation over the previous two decades they were still of the same breed that won the last Great War. There's not a single shot of a battlefield beyond a poster for the travel agency that Frank works for, but it does fall under the same umbrella as William Wyler's Mrs. Miniver. At the same time, though, the character work is strong enough to raise the movie from its status as propaganda and work as a straight drama, much in the same way that In Which We Serve was able to focus strongly enough on the sailors to make it a strong piece at the same time.
Acting is solid all around especially from Celia Johnson as Ethel who goes through the most having to reject her own daughter, Queenie, after she leaves for France. A filmed play, it never feels like it's limited to a single set, though most of it does take place in the house with only brief sojourns outside. Lean found ways to keep the framing interesting and changing throughout in non-flashy ways, keeping the movie visually engaging throughout.
It's a solid little drama that, much like Lean's previous film, is very much of its time but strong enough to stand outside of it as well. This Lean fellow might have a future in directing. -
JamesHitchcock23 September 2011A wealthy public schoolboy was asked by his English teacher to write an essay on the subject of "Poverty". He began his essay thus. "There once was a poor family. The father was poor. The mother was poor. The children were poor. Even the servants were poor".
Seeing "This Happy Breed", which tells the story of a working class London family between 1919 and 1939, put me in mind of this old joke. You can tell the family are supposed to be working class as they all talk in not-always-accurate Cockney accents, but given that they live in a solid Edwardian villa in the prosperous South London commuter suburb of Clapham, the sort of house which today would sell for over half a million pounds, and even employ their own live-in maid, they are not the sort of people whom anyone other than Noël Coward would regard as belonging to the downtrodden masses.
Apart from Edie the maid, the household includes paterfamilias Frank Gibbons, his wife Ethel, their three children Reg, Vi and Queenie, Frank's widowed sister Sylvia and Ethel's elderly mother. Another important character is their neighbour, Frank's old army friend Bob Mitchell, whose sailor son Billy falls in love with Queenie. We follow the story of the Gibbonses between the wars, with occasional reference to political events (the Empire Exhibition of 1924, the General Strike of 1926, the rise of Nazism, etc).
Although the film was made in 1944 during the war, the play upon which it is based had been written in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war, and it ends with Frank and Ethel's retirement to the countryside. Rather surprisingly, there is no attempt to turn Coward's play into a piece of direct wartime propaganda by changing the ending to show the Gibbonses staying in London throughout the Blitz. (The nearest to a direct reference to the war comes in a scene set in 1938 when Frank criticises Chamberlain's policy of appeasement, and the pro-appeasement, anti-war ideas which Coward despised are discredited by being put into the mouth of the eccentric Sylvia, a hypochondriac and religious fanatic). Rather, the filmmakers use the story to put across an indirect propaganda message, showing the supposed courage, determination and good humour of ordinary British people, albeit not in a wartime setting. The title, a reference to the English people, is taken from John of Gaunt's famous patriotic speech in Shakespeare's "Richard II".
The film was, rather unnecessarily, made in colour. Technicolor film was something of a luxury in the wartime British cinema, generally reserved for spectaculars like Olivier's "Henry V", so I was surprised to see it being used for a low-key domestic drama. The film would have worked just as well in black-and-white, a medium in which its director David Lean could work brilliantly. There are no bright colours; most scenes are of domestic interiors, decorated in the drab brown-and-cream colour schemes of the twenties and thirties.
This was Lean's second film as director; all his first four were based upon works by Coward. (The others were "In Which We Serve", "Blithe Spirit" and "Brief Encounter"). Lean is today probably best remembered for large-scale epics like "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Dr Zhivago", but his early work from the 1940s is very different in style, being made in a much more intimate, small-scale manner. Lean could be a master of this style; indeed, I would rate his two Dickens adaptations of "Oliver Twist" and "Great Expectations" as being among his greatest works.
"This Happy Breed", however, is one of Lean's weakest films. Its weakness is only partly due to Coward's patronising and unrealistic view of the man or woman on the Clapham omnibus. (He was much more effective when writing about the aristocracy or wealthy classes). The acting is not particularly good, despite the presence of well-known names such Robert Newton as Frank, Celia Johnson as Ethel and John Mills as Billy. Mills, at 36, seems far too old for the youthful Billy of the early scenes; as often happens with family sagas, dealing with characters who start off young and end up middle-aged proves to be a problem. Guy Verney, who plays Vi's Socialist husband Sam Leadbitter, struck me as being particularly poor. His Cockney accent was the least convincing on display, and although Sam is supposed to be a revolutionary firebrand his political speeches are delivered in a wooden manner. Things could have been worse; Coward apparently wanted to play Frank himself, as he had done on stage, but was dissuaded by Lean who felt (probably correctly) that audiences would be unable to accept the patrician author as a working-class character.
The other problem with the film is its disjointed, episodic structure. I do not know how this would work on stage, as I have never seen the play in the theatre. (It is rarely performed nowadays). On screen, however, it has the effect of turning the story into a series of vignettes, meaning that there is no real sense of character development and that potentially interesting themes are wasted without their full dramatic potential being realised. An example is Queenie's affair with a married man, which is dealt with in a very perfunctory manner; we never see her lover on screen, and never even learn his name. In 1944 a film like this might have had a certain appeal, if only for its feelgood factor. Today it comes across as very dated. 5/10
Some goofs. Given that the film was made only a few years after the events is depicts, I was surprised to come across a couple of historical errors. In reality, the formation of Britain's National Government (1931) took place before Adolf Hitler's election as German chancellor (1933), not after it as shown here, and the full name of Oswald Mosley's movement was the "British Union of Fascists", not the "Fascist Party of Great Britain". -
MrOllie12 September 2011I throughly enjoyed this little gem of a film. It is very well acted and it was nice to see a smart well groomed Robert Newton being a million miles away from Long John Silver. It had some laughs,some drama and quite a bit of sadness and as you get to know the different characters you feel a genuine fondness for them. I was brought up in the 1950's and recall visiting relatives who had grandmas and spinster aunts living with them, just like in this film. Though there is bickering and some harsh words used by the family, it does represent a time when families stuck together and deep down loved and respected one another. If you get the chance to see this movie, then I am sure that you will enjoy it.
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jboothmillard23 August 2009I came across this film purely by accident, flipping the channels, and I stuck with it to see what I'd think about it, produced by Noël Coward and directed by Sir David Lean. It was basically a drama seeing how the lives of a family are changed and continue during World War II. The Gibbons family: husband/father Frank (Robert Newton), wife/mother Ethel (Brief Encounter's Celia Johnson), daughter Queenie (Kay Walsh) and son Reg (John Blythe), have moved to a house in the suburbs, after end of WWI. During the breakout of WWII, the family sees a marriage, the birth of children, heartbreak, tragedy and even some death, but all the family and their friends stick with each other through it all. Also starring Sir John Mills as Billy Mitchell, My Fair Lady's Stanley Holloway as Bob Mitchell, Amy Veness as Mrs. Flint, Alison Leggatt as Aunt Sylvia, Eileen Erskine as Vi, Guy Verney as Sam Leadbitter, Merle Tottenham as Edie and Betty Fleetwood as Phyllis Blake, with narration by Lord Sir Laurence Olivier. There doesn't seem to be a specific plot or story, it is a multi-character film, but it is an enjoyable one. Very good!
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While completely ignored by the American Academy, This Happy Breed was one of the most successful films in England in 1944. When the movie starts, it seems like a British version of The Best Years of Our Lives, but as the story continues, it becomes much more of a domestic drama than a story of veterans' plight. It's one of the most fantastic, moving hearth-and-home films I've ever seen, and since I'm a classic movie aficionado, that's a very meaningful compliment.
Starring Robert Newton and Celia Johnson, it follows the ups and downs of one family during the years between the world wars. David Lean, a master director, and Noel Coward, usually known for his lighter comedies, bring an incredible drama to the screen. As it was created and released in the thick of WWII, an extra sadness is included, as audiences were watching the uncertainty in the theaters mirroring their own uncertainty at home.
Robert and Celia start the story young, happy, and relatively fresh as they move into their first home after the end of WWI. Bobbie's friend and fellow veteran, Stanley Holloway, is their neighbor. Together, the two families age and watch their children pursue their own paths, and they lean on each other during the terrible times; sometimes, reminiscing with dear friends is the only way to muddle through. One unique and fantastic element to the film is the makeup. The film spans twenty-five years, and Bobbie, Celia, and Stanley all age very realistically, as do the children: John Mills, Kay Walsh, Eileen Erskine, and John Blythe.
The chemistry between Bobbie and Celia is so natural, and while they are given very good lines to demonstrate their closeness, it's their acting that is the glue of the film. Neither roles require the actors to give over-the-top performances, but they're tour-de-force parts for both leads. It's a subtle, realistic movie, and they play subtle, realistic people. Without giving spoilers to the plot, it isn't really possible for me to fully complement Bobbie and Celia, but I will say this: at the end of the movie, you truly feel like you've just witnessed twenty-five years of their lives. You will be exhausted, and you'll be filled with awe of their talent. -
jem13220 December 2008A decent second film from David Lean, who would go on to direct some of the greatest films of all time. As with his other early films, Lean's material is a Noel Coward play. The film follows the lives of a middle class family between the Wars. As this film was released into a Britain battling overseas, it seems to be encouraging solidarity on the homefront, and the holding up of middle class values. But this is different from usual Noel Coward, and it's message is a little confused. One male character's liberalist ideas are seemingly stultified by a wife and kids, and he's encouraged just to live a normal, somewhat dreary suburban life. Spoiled daughter Queenie (Kay Walsh) wants to ascend to the upper class and live rich, but she meekly marries sailor John Mills (too old for the role, but still good). Coward seems to be virtually discouraging any movement out of a quiet suburban stratosphere. Every character seems to have to settle for what they don't want.
Celia Johnson (who would give one of the greatest female performances of all time in Lean's later "Brief Encounter") is excellent and very authentic as the mother. Robert Newton proves he can be subtle as well as eye-poppingly grandiose in his portrayal of the patriarchy of the family. Ronald Neame's Technicolour is very nice, but it lacks any atmosphere or particular "look" to it. I prefer the black-and-white mastery of "Brief Encounter", "Great Expectations" and "Madeleine". I liked the film, but there is nothing particularly interesting about the characters and it all just hums along. Better things were to come from David Lean in later years. -
ikbradford11 September 2007Was it nostalgia I asked myself? Brought up in the fifties many of the attitudes seem familiar although the family itself were an idealised vision of how I remember things. All that said I loved it for what it was, a gentle, often funny, film with superb acting and great visual images. A touching and thoroughly enjoyable film that I am sure I will return to at another time. Not a great film and no massive impact, but what a pleasure to watch and what a shame that the British film industry seems to have lost some of the skills and application so evident in this movie. This is one for a quiet afternoon. It won't tax your mind nor overly excite but it will leave you feeling happier for watching it.
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This Happy Breed was David Lean's first picture as sole credited director, and continued his collaboration with playwright Noel Coward. It's a far cry from the massive epics that Lean is best known for, although there are links between the early Lean and the later Lean. The focus couldn't be much more different, but just like Laurence of Arabia nearly twenty years later, Lean (or rather Coward, since it's his play) is here telling the story of historical events through the experiences of individual, well-defined characters.
One thing that's always struck me about these early David Lean pictures is how similar his technique was to that of Alfred Hitchcock. His subject matter was vastly different, but you could say this is what it would look like had Hitch made dramas. You can see this right from the opening shot, as the camera pans over the Thames then homes in on one house, echoing the beginning of many a Hitchcock thriller like Hitch, Lean is here saying "this could be any home, any family". He shows similarities with Hitch in the way he arranges the actors in a shot, and there is some fairly classy handling of characters emotional states a more gentle take on Hitchcock's aim to always show character psychology.
It's a mystery to me why this was made in colour. For a start, Technicolor was not easy to get hold of in Britain at this time (for example The Archers had to delay making A Matter of Life and Death til after the war was over). There's nothing about the subject matter that really demands colour, and to be honest Lean doesn't make that good use of it (he was to demonstrate great skill with black and white in subsequent films up until the mid 1950s). The only reason I can think of is to inject more realism into it. Also, in spite of its small focus, the picture does seem to give itself the airs and sweep of a "big" picture, what with the grand orchestral score and the location shooting.
There's some good acting talent on display here. Stanley Holloway and Frank Mills are great in their supporting roles, but the real standout is Celia Johnson. Her performance is both powerful and naturalistic. She may not have had the looks to be given many lead roles, but she really was one of the best English actors of her generation.
This Happy Breed was probably quite something for the British public at the time of its release. It wasn't that common to see a film depicting a normal, average family having normal, average experiences, particularly where these were related to events in recent memory. However, it hasn't aged well, and looking at it now I'd say it probably says more about the inside of Noel Coward's head than it does about the British people or the British experience in the inter war years. The dialogue is full of meaningless waffle about Britain or the British character. There are some rather obvious attempts to represent a variety of political standpoints through different characters, although This Happy Breed is extremely subjective in its portrayal of actual historical events.
Another clue as to why This Happy Breed was such a major success at the time is its bolstering optimism. David Lean is often said to have captured the post war mood with his late-40s output, and here in 1944 he seems to be looking forward to the end of the war. This Happy Breed starts with the end of the last war, and ends with the beginning of the then-current one, and there is that air of "we took it before, we can do it again". But unlike the superlative war and post-war films of Michael Powell, or Lean's own Brief Encounter, no matter how timely it was in its day, this is no great picture here and now. -
This homely classic of Noel Coward and David Lean is like a corollary to Coward's earlier masterpiece "Cavalcade" 10 years earlier from the 1890s up to the thirties, but this is more concentrated on family life only, and although it's a small world there are some human dramas in it all the same, principally enacted by Kay Walsh as the young and flippant Queenie, the problem child of the family, courted by John Mills as a sailor, who is willing to sacrifice anything for her no matter how bad she behaves.
The main actors are Celia Johnson and Robert Newton, though, matched by the inimitable Stanley Holloway, and some of the best scenes are with him, particularly the long scene of the farewell letter. Celia Johnson always made stark impressions as something of the ultimate woman and mother and more so here than ever.
It's to the advantage of the film that there is not much of the outside world intruding on the cozy family life. Of course, there is some political engagement by one of the sons-in-law, the great strikes make themselves noticed, there is som fascist agitation at Hyde Park Corner, but there is nothing of the great depression, and none of the great political affairs disturb the family.
One of their most charming ingredients is the case of the old mother. She is always discontent and finds a perfect partner to nag with in her unmarried daughter, Celia's sister, and Robert Newton is very categorical in his final comments on her case. It's a masterstroke of Noel Coward to make such a perfectly sour and negative person appear as the most hilarious part of the story. -
neolitic19 August 2007Has anyone else had the feeling that a young Lennon and McCartney were influenced by Coward and Lean?
The scene where Queenie leaves could be a perfect video accompaniment to "She's Leaving Home". It matches the lyric step for step.
This strikes me every time I see the film. I imagine a late night composing session, with a break where the boys sit down and catch the the British equivalent of "Late Late Show", and are inspired by this quietly powerful scene. It would be interesting to know when this film was in rotation on British television.
Anyone else? -
lasttimeisaw15 December 2016David Lean's hallmark interwar drama, his sophomore feature movie is an adaptation of Noël Coward's play. Shot with gorgeous Technicolor felicity, THIS HAPPY BREED is a compelling slice- of-life story chronicling the vicissitude of Gibbons family from 1919 to 1939, before WWII looming large ominously in the offing.
The Gibbons family settles into their new house in South London shortly after WWI, a household of seven, patriarch Frank (Newton), matriarch Ethel (Johnson), their three children: Reg (Blythe), Vi (Erskine) and Queenie (Walsh), as well as Ethel's spinster sister Sylvia (Leggatt) and their mother Ms. Flint (Veness), whose barbs-throwing schticks can never run dry even if being tediously deployed here, and both actresses have poignant moments which vouch for their affecting versatility during the film's most heartbreaking revelation. Lean hones the subsequent smarting long shot with a perversely impassive static shot, entirely banks on Newton and Johnson's reactions, he is already a dab-hand in theatricality at such an early stage!
Coward's story gives an easy pass on marital hitches (a recurring beef of Ethel is Frank's drinking problem, but that is occasional and rather comically portrayed), instead, homes in on the generational gap between parents and their children, their disagreements in politics, world-views and lifestyles, a tussle between idealism (hot-blooded, revolutionary, and eager to success) and realism (the innate attributes of British's monarchical roots), an exchange between sage epigrams learned from the college named life and headstrong wishful thinking liberated through the airy-fairy unworldliness. And the POV never deflects from Frank and Ethel, because they are the emblem of mankind, benevolent, upstanding, perseverant and refuse to be squashed by adversity (this is high melodrama so to speak). Meantime, Lean nimbly slips in cardinal societal events to extract the ethos of its time, but refrains from becoming over-patriotic, because, in the end of the day, it is a tale apropos of commonality refracted through the microcosm of a family saga, and it is achieved with a remarkable equilibrium between enthusiasm and sobriety.
Impressive performances a gogo, Robert Newton and Celia Johnson are unexpectedly naturalistic when handling those stagy materials - they are simply the best parents one can ever imagine to have, and Johnson in particular, excels in the role which is much senior to her real age, what a range she exhibits! Although, in the earlier segments, it is quite a stretch to believe she could be the mother of 3, since she looks barely a tad older than the three actors who play her children. Kay Walsh, as the rebellious daughter Queenie, has her own moment of grandstanding and she actually pulls off the least likable character with rather unforeseen honesty and moxie, whereas a four- square John Mills, who plays Bill Mitchell, the neighbor's son who carries a torch for her unyieldingly, is a warmth generator pops up intermittently during the family's turbulence. Finally, Stanley Holloway, who plays Bill's father Bob, Frank's comrade-in-arms, chummy and sometimes well-oiled, whenever he appears with Frank, their scenes smack of nostalgia, not of war but heart- felt camaraderie.
Through and through, THIS HAPPY BREED is engaging, endearing and brilliantly touching, shorn of highfalutin artifice which might impinge on Lean-Coward's following collaboration BLITHE SPIRIT (1945). -
MOscarbradley14 May 2007This paean of praise to the British spirit came out at the height of the Second World War and could be seen as a rallying cry for the War Effort even though it takes place during the years of peace between 1919 and 1939. The writer, Noel Coward, as the self-appointed guardian of all things British, for that read the morale of the working and middle classes, although he himself mingled in very upper-class circles and this is a mish-mash of accents and attitudes that by today's standards is highly patronizing.
Not a great deal happens. Coward's interest is in the minutiae of the ordinary, everyday aspects of life where the dramatic and the banal are equally important and while the characters are reasonably well delineated and played by the stock British cast, (John Mills comes off best), and the film very well directed in its way by David Lean, (there is one great scene involving the announcement of a death), it never engages you on the kind of emotional level that the later "Brief Encounter" does. What gives the film its resonance is hindsight. The Gibbons family sail inexorably into the Second World War. As Coward said, 'bad times are just around the corner' and the sadness comes from our knowledge might just be waiting for all of them. Lean also chose to film it in colour which certainly brightens things up and you can't say it's not handsome to look at. The kitchen sink is in there, alright but Kitchen Sink drama it certainly ain't. -
alice liddell4 August 1999Noel Coward is rightly remembered today for his glittering personality, the odd sparkling play, the crazy audacity of Brief Encounter, and an imperishable song repertoire, which navigated the comic and melancholy with something approaching genius.
But in his day, he was more celebrated for pompous pageants like this, which elevated British ordinariness, mediocrity and respectability, patronisingly epitomised by the lower middle classes. Utilising a framework of great events to focus on the domestic realm is a worthy project, but Coward rejects the critical apparatus of the great film melodramatists. Extremes have no place in these works, and it is extremes - tragedy, pain, madness, fear, humiliation etc. - which are often the essence of great cinema.
One should expect parochial conservatism, cheap patriotism verging on xenophobia (it is hard to credit the jingoism of a man who escaped to the Caribbean to avoid taxes), mundane truisms, contrived vignettes, patronising accents, stilted dialogue, and embarrassingly theatrical acting from Coward in 'serious' mode. But what of David Lean, an artist whose great theme was the breaking out of convention, society, history, mediocrity, and the embracing, however self-destructive, of passion, love, greatness, individuality? Lean has been damning of the sterile Little England mentality, which strives so hard to be normal that it borders on the insane, as in the famous case of Colonel Nicholson in Bridge On The River Kwai. How does this Lean transcend the dullness of his material?
With great difficulty. One divines his desire to follow Queenie, the wayward daughter, who spurns the stifling nature of conventionality, and flees. However, he is stuck within the stagy confines of the good old home, discreetly emphasising its slow-burning repressiveness with a rudimentary use of the techniques Sirk, Ray etc. would later master in evoking confinement and waste. The characters are too stereotypical or complacent to care about, the blatant ideology is offensive, and the colour is ugly; but there is one remarkable sequence, one of the greatest in all cinema, when a death is announced, and Lean reveals, through camera movement alone, the poverty of Coward's vision.
This house is seen by both Coward and Lean as a symbol of Britain, but in different ways - for the one it is faded, but sturdy and reliable; for the other, it is a prison to escape. Thus the double-edged poignancy of the closing 'London Pride' depends on which view you sympathise with, although, either way, the film ends with a brave lack of certainty (it was filmed during the height of the Second World War).
It should be remembered that the film is contemporaneous with, and covers the same period as, Brideshead Revisited; and the comparison with Waugh only shows up Coward's inadequacies in terms of artistic width, human understanding, and historical acuity (whatever Waugh's defects as a human being). History in This Happy Breed is shown as something that can be weathered, even ignored, by good old common sense. This might be admirable advice, but it makes for tedious drama. Waugh knows that history is a human tragedy, diminishing both the individual and collective endeavour; that stability is impossible no matter what stand you make; and that a recourse to the spiritual, while conferring a sad grandeur and nobility to inevitable human failure, is a poor substitute for life.