Wunderbare Zeiten

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.