Britannia Mews

Dana Andrews first character in the movie was as 'Henry Lambert' not 'Herbert Lambert' and he didn't fall out a window - he fell down the stairs. I watched this movie today on Fox and I liked it - I didn't think that I would at first. This movie was also titled: "Affairs of Adelaide" and "The Forbidden Street". The story was a from a book by Margery Sharp entitled: "Britannia Mews". She also wrote the books from which the animated features "The Rescuers" (1977) and "The Rescuers Down Under" (1990) were drawn. I would buy this movie (The Forbidden Street/Britannia Mews/Affairs of Adelaide) if it were to come out on DVD. This is the first time I have commented on a movie in such a way.

Keeping Maureen O'Hara on its payroll throughout the 1940s was one of the smartest things Twentieth Century Fox ever did: She was capable and spirited, and so pretty that it wouldn't have mattered if she couldn't act at all. Here she is in a typically feisty role, a well-to-do London miss who marries badly and becomes victimized by a creepy old streetwoman (Dame Sybil Thorndike). As a melodrama in the "Gaslight" vein with bizarre comedy touches, it's fairly silly, but there's much to savor, especially in the details: an atmospheric backlot set (I think it was actually filmed on 20th's British soundstage), blackmail, puppetry, cackling hags, some tasty dialogue, and one exceedingly odd moment where Dana Andrews invites his ladylove's little brother to bed.

What a wonderful film this is! It is difficult to catalogue all its vast variations of deserts, with sudden turn of events and charming details constantly renewing and refreshing the story, which is like a Dickens novel. Maureen O'Hara is always good but here better than ever, while Dana Andrews takes you by surprise with this virtuoso performance totally out of his ordinary style, vying in charm with Robert Donat; while the prize goes to Sybil Thorndike, who makes a really frightening witch with more than one bag of evil up her sleeve, which she uses with calculation and effective impact.

It's really an environmental film depicting a slum area with exciting intrigue and characters and fascinating idylls of the gutter. It's related with another environmental London film of the same time, "London Belongs to Me" with equally convincing documentary rendering of local life in London town, but here the events take place long before the turn of the century - Bernard Shaw is mentioned as a rising star in the beginning of his career.

The miracle of the story is how a tragedy is turned to its opposite. A failed painter leaves behind the result of his secret hobby work, making puppets, and these turn out to be his real masterpiece. A really hopeless tragedy of bleak dreariness with no way out is miraculously turned into comedy by his puppets coming alive. The process of this U-turn of fate is completely natural, and a tragedy of human decay, failure, alcoholism and dishonour is suddenly reversed into a cheerful comedy - the real comedian is Maureen O'Hara's helpful brother, who understands things his own way.

The end of it is how the dreadfully sultry slum turns into a wonderland of idylls and charm in spite of all, and there, ultimately, after all the heartbreaks, the heart nevertheless will remain.

(I wrote this review previously, but it was apparently lost in a power cut. Maybe it can be retrieved. If not, here is what I could do to recreate it.)

As a ten year old kid, I saw this film in 1949 under its U.S. title THE FORBIDDEN STREET (it was not a title later made up for any kind of re-release on VHS or DVD, although it did come out as BRITANNIA MEWS in the U.K.). We got a big kick out of Mrs. Mounsey (we then thought it was "Mrs. Mousey"), especially when the second Dana Andrews character slaps her around a bit and practically throws her onto what looked like either a stove or dresser, but even then I knew who Dame Sybil Thorndike was, and it appears that some reviewers of this film still don't. All the other performances in the film range from just about okay to pretty good, but Thorndike's old hag is really a showcase, considering how short her role ultimately is. One should be reminded that Thorndike (and not Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Margaret Rutherford, Margaret Leighton, Dorothy Tutin, etc.) was considered the greatest English stage actress of the 20th century from her debut around 1904 and right into the early 1970s, created Shaw's SAINT JOAN after he wrote it for her, did quite literally many hundreds of roles from Shakespeare and Marlowe to Priestly and Williams in the U.K., all over America and, indeed, almost the entire known civilized world of her day (who else can you think of who played Lady Macbeth, Hecuba and one of the sweetly murderous Brewster Sisters in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, or who took shots at Greek drama in Greek and French classical repertoire in French?). She was almost 50 when talkies came in, so she naturally didn't make many films except in older character roles (she was Olivier's mother in PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, but that role was originally Olivier's wife when the play was done with him and Vivien Leigh in London, and this probably remains her best-known film appearance). As for Dana Andrews, they did a good job of dubbing in his voice with one belonging to an English actor, but the voice really didn't go with Andrews' demeanor and character. His second character has the right voice (his own) for that first character. Anyway, the mid-Atlantic type accents heard from O'Hara and Andrews didn't bother me at all, and the fellow playing O'Hara's younger brother, Anthony Tancred, would appear to have had a very short film career, and this is unfortunate, as he is very good in the role and looks something like a taller and classier version of George Cole. Amazingly enough, they get away with turning a pretty morose and near tragic story into almost a comedy by the time the curtain comes down, and that is no mean achievement. Anyway, it was nice to see it again after 67 years and to see that memory can play tricks on one - I seemed to recall that the second Andrews character threw Mrs. Mounsey down the stairs, but he didn't. Good thing, too; that's no way to treat Dame Sybil Thorndike. Aside: Thorndike was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1931, but her husband, equally proficient actor and incredibly proficient stage director Lewis Casson, wasn't knighted until almost two decades later. She was delighted because now she could be legitimately called either "Dame Sybil" or "Lady Casson".

Amusingly over-plotted but not half-bad melodrama stars a miscast Maureen O'Hara as a wealthy young British woman in Victorian England who marries a penniless art-instructor and moves with him into the slums of London; after an accidental death, O'Hara is blackmailed by the local busybody, but finds redemption in congenial--though already married--Dana Andrews. Neither O'Hara nor Andrews gives a particularly strong performance (and Maureen's rolling Irish burr seems more pronounced than ever); however, the supporting players are good and the screenplay from talented Ring Lardner Jr., adapting the book "Britannia Mews" by Margery Sharp, nicely avoids soap opera and predictability by continually changing tone and direction. O'Hara's "Addie" goes through just as many changes, turning from wide-eyed girl to fed-up housewife to salty broad to society bride! The set designs are impeccable, and the film is well-mounted and paced with a jovial step by director Jean Negulesco. *** from ****