English Without Tears

English without Tears, also called Her Man Gilbey, a reference to My Man Godfrey, which had come out in america, eight years prior. Gilbey (Michael Wilding) is butler to the Beauclerk family. So when the family travels to Geneva, he goes along. The fun, zany Margaret Rutherford is silly Lady Beauclerk, concerned with the rights of the birds that she watches. And refuses to eat. When she delivers her speech at Geneva, it is mis-understood, and causes quite a stir at the world conference. Where spies are swirling and listening, from every country. When a girl from a foreign country asks Gilbey out on a date, the neice Joan (Penelope Ward) gets jealous. But...Gilbey joins the miliary service. This was released in 1944, but it's not stated here when it was filmed. When Joan writes in her diary, we see it's the summer of 1939, so the war hadn't really hit the fan yet... many countries were still undecided what to do if war were to break out. There's no date at the start of the film, but i guess it doesn't matter when it was actually filmed. It's good. Has a sense of adventure and fun about it. In spite of the serious subject matter. Directed by Harold French. Co-stars Claude Dauphin; he was in some biggies: Barbarella, Quiet American. Some fun tidbits in Wilding's Bio section here on imdb... not only was he mister Liz Taylor in the 1950s, but sued Hedda Hopper for saying he had a liaison with Noel Coward early in his career. He and coward had worked on two films and a tv show together.

Joan is 16, and in love. The only problem - he's their butler! And while you can love the butler, you can't LOVE him.

About 5 plots seem to be going on at once here, and everything is introduced in a very roundabout way, not coming together until the final minutes. Surely the best part of the film, apart from Tom the Butler, is Brigid the translator, who adds a lot of charm and wit to the story.

Tom goes away to join the army, and comes back an Officer, and in love with Joan - who is older and has of course moved on! So what is a guy to do? She's now teaching English to foreign soldiers, half of whom have crushes on her, but Tom ain't gonna be licked..

An hour and 20 minutes in length, but English Without Tears at times feels a lot longer. It has its moments (don't miss the caricaturist near the start, and the Aunt's crying over the poor defenceless murdered Thrush..) but gets dull at times. It is worth it to stay tuned to the end though. 7/10

"Her Man Gilbey," originally titled "English Without Tears," is a British comedy, drama and wartime film made in 1944. No doubt, it was designed to help keep up the spirits of the Brits during World War II. The film debuted in London on July 28, and by that time hopes were much higher about an Allied victory and eventual end to the war. The D-Day landing at Normandy on June 6 had put the Germans on the run in France.

Michael Wilding is the star of this film as Tom Gilbey, and he carries the film. The time span is more than five years. Gilbey goes from being the butler in the large household of Lady Christabel Beauclerk and her family, to a major in the British Army. Penelope Dudley-Ward is Joan Heseltine, part of the family, who is in love with Gilbey. That is, before the war. A few other characters add some humor or charm.

Rutherford's Lady Beauclerk has a couple of very funny scenes, one in a talk before a League of Nations gathering in Paris - all about birds. The suspicions of delegates from some other countries provides a little humor. Lilli Palmer plays Brigid Knudsen, a multi-lingual interpreter who winds up in London privately tutoring foreigners in English. Lady Beauclerk does her patriotic duty and turns her mansion into a type of club and social center for the allied foreign officers. Joan is teaching large groups of men to speak and properly pronounce English. Peggy Cummins plays Bobbie Heseltine, her younger sister, who wants Joan and Tom to get together. Roland Culver is Sir Cosmo Brandon. Claude Dauphin is Francois and Albert Lieven is Felix.

The plot bounces around a bit, and all these characters had substantial parts. One has a feeling of being a little taxed at trying to keep track as the story packs quite a lot into a short film of 87 minutes. So, the comedy is rather sparse, the romance is sort of on the sandwich ends, and the wartime Homefront drama and comedy takes up the last two-thirds.

It's a fair film, mostly interesting for the fine cast, although it does give an authentic picture of one piece of the Homefront at that time in WW II London. With the title change for obvious connection to the highly successful Hollywood comedy of 1936, the best this film can be is a distant cousin to "My Man Godfrey."

Here's the best line in the film, while Gilbey was still working as a butler before the war. Tom Gilbey, "We can't alter human nature. Foreigners, after all, are foreigners."

English without Tears is a movie of surprising length, considering that its less than 90 minutes long. Perhaps it is so because the war was on in 1944 when it was released - but this is more a farce than comedy.

For such a short movie, there is a lot going on. There is the plot about the butler and one of the girls who professes her love for him. Then there is the plot about the English Instructor with whom the students cheat on their real instructor with. Then there is the farce element of mistaken manners, and confused situations.

There is even an S and M theme going on with how one of the characters treats another, and it serves as their own personal turn on.

Lillie Palmer is radiant and under used in this film. However the casting of frigid and rigid Penelope Dudley-Ward makes the heroine unsympathetic and engaging. Michael Wilding is wooden at ease and uncomfortable when he should be relaxed. It all simply doesn't work.

The most ironic line of all in the movie is "I do not understand jokes because I have no sense of humor" is said by a woman to her uniformed date at a dance, to which the gentleman retorts with "Then I will explain the joke to you".

Movies, like jokes aren't funny when they have to be explained either.

This is a quintessentially English film scripted in the main by Terence Rattigan, arguably one of the great English playwrights. He wrote the play, made into a film called ' French Without Tears ' and this in a way is a loose follow up, and the American title is both trite and ridiculous. It is a wonderful and subtle comedy on class relations beginning to break down in the UK just before and after WW2. Penelope Dudley-Ward is good in her mood shifts and changes of feeling in her relationship with her butler played by Michael Wilding. The cast is excellent with Lili Palmer stealing every scene she is in, and there are others in the cast including Margaret Rutherford and Roland Culver who uphold the spirit of pre-war England in a manner both farcical and strangely endearing. I love it but it needs work and an understanding of the social politics of the time.