Quiet Weekend

"Quiet Weekend" is a wonderful, warm and funny film set in the English countryside in 1946. This British comedy has none of the prominent actors who would be known outside of the UK at the time - especially across the pond in the Americas. Most of the cast had short film careers, so few were likely to be known even in the UK then. In a way, that makes this film all the more notable, because to a person the roles played here are very good.

The comedy here isn't from clever or funny dialog, although the script has an occasional barb or witticism. Mostly, it's just in the relationships of this family and friends. One particular caper involves the lord of the house, Arthur Royd, the local justice of the peace, friend Adrian Barrasford, the Royd's caretaker, Sam Pecker, and a niece, Miranda Bute. They set out at night to poach a salmon from a neighbor's stream. That's quite funny by itself. A community playhouse evening is also worth a couple of laughs. And, a local jailhouse with a court scene is very good and funny.

This is a delightful and feel-good film that those who like old movies should enjoy. Here are a couple favorite lines.

Rowena Hyde, after kissing with Denys Royd, "That was very pleasant." Denys, "Pleasant? It was wonderful!"

Adrian Barrasford, the local justice of the peace, says to Arthur Royd after their caper the night before, "No, I warn you. I shall fine us very heavily."

For anyone born in the UK before about 1935 (as I was) this movie will bring back memories of austerity, such as very few cars and very little food and primitive plumbing. We all had to make do with what we had; the top rate of income tax was around 95%. Nevertheless the middle classes had those delicious cut-glass English accents; "thanks" was pronounced "thenks". The lower classes such as the old poacher, spoke their lines in broad accents and were usually considered to be comic characters.

That has all changed now. This movie is good entertainment but also of value to the social historians. It is the way the British coped with the rigors of victory after WW II, i.e. paying off the huge loans owed to the USA while trying to become a socialist society.

Denys (Derek Farr) brings his girlfriend Rowena (Helen Shingler) to stay with him and his family at their country house. His cousin Miranda (Barbara White) does not approve. Meanwhile, friend and local magistrate Adrian (Frank Cellier) is convinced to take part in a spot of salmon poaching....

This is a British film that has a certain quaintness and charm if you like that sort of thing. It's dialogue driven and quite amusing in parts, especially when Rowena and Miranda are sparring with each other. Unfortunately, the dialogue is delivered in that awful upper-class British accent, eg, "happening" becomes "heppening", and "actually" becomes "ectually". No-one normal speaks like that. Another irritation is the constant barking of orders and dishing out of instructions by Mildred (Marjorie Fielding). God that woman is annoying! There are a few lightweight comedic episodes, eg, the concert at the local village hall and the salmon-poaching incident but the main thing that sticks with me is the love between Miranda and Denys. They are cousins. Derek Farr is a complete non-entity as a leading man and the love theme that is explored in this film is just wrong!

Before seeing this 1946 film I recommend the viewer sees the earlier 1941 film "Quiet Wedding" which was also based on a stage play by Esther McCracken.The latter film introduced the basic characters of the Royd family but there are some glaring anomalies.First the two films/plays are not sequential and some of the characters in "Quiet Wedding" are not present in "Quiet Weekend".Principally I missed not seeing Margaret Lockwood again as Janet Royd, I suppose in 1946 (the year of my birth) she was busy elsewhere filming "Bedelia".Instead of a young Muriel Pavlow, we have Barbara White playing the impish Miranda Bute who is the cousin of Denys Royd (Derek Farr) and on whom she has a girlish crush.This time Miranda tries to sabotage Denys' romance with Rowena (Helen Shingler) whose character seems to gradually evaporate as the film develops.

Another reviewer made the point about the large number of orders given by Mildred Royd (Marjorie Fielding) to all and sundry, no wonder the Fuhrer did not stand a chance when up against British women like this during the war!!Another actress Josephine Wilson (who played Mary Jarrow) eventually becomes engaged to Adrian Barrasford played by Frank Cellier, appeared to be the mysterious Madame Kumar from Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) who posed as a replacement to "The Lady" played by Dame May Witty.Interestingly, Frank Cellier played Derek Farr's father in the earlier film.Finally the actor Ballard Berkeley ("The Major" in "Fawlty Towers") makes an earlier appearance here playing "Jim Brent".

I laughingly agreed with the user comments above about the very stagy, comic way of 1930s speaking and pronouncement of words in that "I say anyone for tennis?" way of speaking.As I said in "Quiet Wedding" it is all rather endearing now.I rated this film 6/10 and admit to giving "Quiet Weekend" a lesser rating since I am a Margaret Lockwood fan, I missed seeing her in this almost sequel.

Another effortlessly charming ensemble British comedy about a deliciously erudite group of middle-class city slickers whose blissfully bucolic sojourn in their politely ramshackle country abode very soon impolitely turns into a splendidly silly series of splendiferous larks, pratfalls, misadventures, and wonderfully barbed badinage! 'Quiet Weekend' is thankfully never twee, wholesomely funny, undeniably edifying fare, being divinely nostalgic fun, no less crisply satisfying than a freshly cut cucumber sandwich, frequently frothier than a barrel of ginger beer, feisty familial intrigues, burgeoning love affairs, petty jealousies, rain-drenched picnics, and pulse-pounding bouts of midnight Salmon poaching, 'Quiet Weekend' is a far from sedate affair, an enormously good-natured, decidedly classy comedy that is bound to revivify one's flagging spirits like the bracing mustard-infused baths so blithely prescribed by the likeable Royd family's preternaturally capable matriarch Mildred Royd (Marjorie Fielding).