The Weaker Sex

This is rather a strange film with an even stranger title.The film has a substantial amount of newsreel film intercut with the drama.Also there are newspaper headlines shown often when they seem to be of little dramatic point.Cecil Parker and Thora Bird steal the acting honours.I do wonder what contemporary audiences would have made of this film.Particularly being reminded of the austerity that everyone was having to suffer.Films like this were far better made during the war.

Cheap-looking, studio-bound and obviously based on a play, but it looks good and is to be cherished as a very rare film lead for the charming Ursula Jeans.

"The Weaker Sex" is two things. Firstly it is a tribute to the British housewife ("To those who also served, though they were too busy to stand and wait"). Secondly it is a look at contemporary (1948) history through the eyes of a middle-aged housewife.

Though both these goals are admirable, the way they were carried out made a lopsided and rambling film. The first half of the picture, which takes place from D-Day to VE Night, shows a family under the stress of war. The incidents which fill this part of "The Weaker Sex" - air raids, lost and wounded brothers and sons, D-Day landings - are exciting enough to mask the fact that there isn't really any overarching plot, and the characters are going nowhere.

However the second half of the movie, which takes place in the postwar "Age of Austerity" doesn't have this built-in excitement factor. While watching a family coping with peace and the aftermath of war should have been interesting, if only for the novelty value, this half of the picture felt like an epilogue to the real movie. It is possible, even probable, that real life felt like this after the war, but sometimes reality doesn't

Perhaps there was a third purpose behind this movie. On the whole all the characters in "The Weaker Sex" are nice people: decent, doing their duty, law abiding, and not inclined to grumble. Given the era it was made in, it was perhaps intended to boost morale by reminding people how lucky they really were - that though times were hard they had peace, freedom and hope for the future.

I found the title of this rather classy wartime drama a bit misleading. Though it is told from the perspective of the widowed "Martha" (Ursula Jeans) and focusses on the stay at home elements of fighting during WWII - there isn't really anything weak about her dedication to her duties; nor of those of her counterparts. She plays her character with poignancy, dealing with the day-to-day trials and tribulations reconciling her work and her home - in which she billets RN commander "Geoffrey" (Cecil Parker) and sailor "Roddy" whilst her own two children are away serving. From a narrative perspective it climaxes with the D-Day landings and, intercut with War Office actuality, conveys a genuine sense of the fraught anticipation of those at home. Once the war has been won, the story rather peters out - a few fun jibes at the pains of rationing, and that most British of all things - the queue; and there is a degree of stoic, stiff upper lip-ness about the attitudes that makes the characterisations plausible and engaging, but it does slip a little into melodrama. There are a few welcome cameos from Thora Hird as their housekeeper (and, briefly, from Bill Owen with whom she starred in "Last of the Summer Wine" some 60-odd years later) and Kynaston Reeves. The story isn't all plain sailing: grim reality raises it's ugly head now and again, but that is handled subtly and isn't dwindled upon - helping the proceedings march along at a decent pace. I expect this went down well with audiences in 1948 - it's good.

This is what the war years British film industry excelled at. Ursula Jeans and Cecil Parker are a widow and friend of the late husband and her assorted adult children and relatives. The action of the film starts with Mrs. Dacre (Jeans) being given a fresh hen by a random soldier-which might be stolen. Parker is seen vacuuming the floor. War has switched their roles. Their growing friendship is nice to watch. Mrs. Dacre's sister is directly involved in the war so has the luxury of a free uniform, and they frequently clash. A son and daughter are in uniform too. The small issues set the restrained tone, not unlike Mrs. Miniver and Since You Went Away. But inevitably the war and DDay inflict a series of tragic events onto the people connected to Mrs. Dacre.

Now that the last of this generation is down to a few, films such as these will become more important as a cultural record.

If you have any interest in home front history, you'll enjoy this. I found it remarkably moving. The action sequences are terrific and the sets help to remind us how we live in relative luxury compared to life during wartime.

Definitely recommend.