This Happy Breed

London between the wars, as seen by a couple of old soldier comrades from 1914-18. Robert Newton is one of them, married to an odd-accented Celia Johnson, with troublesome kids and a spinster relation to support. Stanley Holloway is the other and somehow is the father of the ubiquitous John Mills.

Noel Coward and David Lean worked together to bring their saga into our hearts and minds, as we rejoice in the good times and empathise with the bad ones. It may be hokum, but some of it works.

The best scenes are the quiet ones - especially the scene without dialogue where mum and dad react to bad news. Newton and Johnson also have considerable rapport in their scenes which works well.

I 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.

This 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.

Whether or not, one agrees with the "truth or morality" of Noel Coward's ennobling view of the British "bourgeois" from 1919-1939, the acting and direction in "This Happy Breed", are superb, and what a cast. I think the notion of sacrifice, pride, and work ethic, might have easily been written about many similar low and middle income families in America from Brooklyn to San Francisco, during the same period, as it was portrayed in the equally, excellent film, "Best Years of our Lives" (1946)

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.