Young Wives' Tale

This is a movie version of one of those brittle post-war stage farces, originally written by Ronald Jeans. Given then-current housing shortages, two couples -- Joan Greenwood & Nigel Patrick; Derek Farr & Helen Cherry -- are sharing a house. Each has one toddler, and only Miss Greenwood as dogsbody for the menage. Given her super-posh accent, she is an absolute flub at it, but she does get to show some athleticism as she leaps from one disaster to the next. When Miss Cherry locates a decent nanny for the children in the person of Athene Seyler, everyone thinks for a moment that the situation is saved, but for the purposes of the plot, they tell her the children are siblings, and she believes Miss Greenwood is married to Mr. Farr. The usual comedy of misconstruction ensues, carried on by speed and the abilities of the cast. Alas, the effort never quite opens up beyond its stage origins.

Movie fans will want to see this for a sizable supporting role by Audrey Hepburn. She plays a young woman who has a room in the house and whose salient quality is she is terrified of men. Although her character connects loosely with the plot at several points, I had the distinct impression that at some stage of the movie's origins -- perhaps before the play actually opened -- the role was actually much larger. Now it is largely vestigial, even if it is the main reason the movie is remembered.

This damaged film was probably only recovered because it has a young Audrey Hepburn, way down the credits list. There are quite a few missing frames after 00:35. The film itself, adapted from a wordy radio play, is a domestic farce-drama with two middle class couples living in a supposedly crowded but seemingly spacious house in the suburbs during the postwar housing shortage. No doubt on the wireless - for which it was originally written - it could have sounded suitably claustrophobic and drab. However the cinema was about fantasy, and the producers decided to set in the film in what would have been considered at the time fabulous middle class luxury. No attempt was made to adapt it for that change. They look for a nanny - even though one of the women has no job and could presumably look after two children - and this and an absolute rotter in an Austin Atlantic lead to a dreadful situation. Product placement - Lux soap flakes.

If you enjoy spending time with a bunch of irritating, childish characters who spend their entire time squabbling and shouting ( usually accompanied by the loud wails of a crying child) you'll love this one. If you don't ???....... avoid it like the plague!

The only reason to watch it is to see Audrey Hepburn's. First featured role. It's not a big part but,. Her Star quality is obvious to all. You can see why, just over two years later, she had an Oscar on her shelf.

Sabina (Joan Greenwood) and Mary (Helen Cherry) are both married sisters who also have a child each of a similar age.

Sabina is a former actress now a young housewife married to writer Rodney.

Meanwhile both Mary and her sedate husband Bruce go out to work.

It leaves Sabina to look after the house and cook for them all. There is a nanny that cares for the children but she leaves when Bruce is rude to her.

To remedy the situation, Mary quickly finds a replacement and this time they pass both the kids off as siblings.

Later for some unfathomable reason. Sabina ends up kissing two men, one of them being Bruce.

This annoys both Mary and Rodney who ends up kissing lovelorn lodger Eve (Audrey Hepburn.)

This is a middle class farce that is not funny and very much of its time. It is very sedate probably due to the censorship laws of the time.

I had no idea why Sabina ended up kissing the other men and I expected both Mary and Rodney to be enraged.

There was no social commentary here. The house was spacious when it was meant to demonstrate the post war housing crisis.

Sabina was not much of a housewife, unable to cook for four adults when she had a nanny to mind the kids.

This is one of those mediocre British farces from the early 1950s were every one rushes around talking as loudly as they can in the hope that the volume of their speech will make up for the paucity of wit contained in the script.The leading pair are Nigel Patrick in an unusual domestic role,for him anyway,and the delectable Joan Greenwood,who had recently starred magnificently in Kind Hearts and Coronets.Supporting them adequately are Helen Cherry,Guy Middleton and Athene Seyler.However the main matter of note is the featuring of Audrey Hepburn who would not long be constrained by her contract with Associated British picture Corporation.I doubt that she remembered this film with any fondness.