Heureux mortels

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.

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)

I throughly enjoyed this little gem of a film. It is very well acted and it was nice to see a smart well groomed Robert Newton being a million miles away from Long John Silver. It had some laughs,some drama and quite a bit of sadness and as you get to know the different characters you feel a genuine fondness for them. I was brought up in the 1950's and recall visiting relatives who had grandmas and spinster aunts living with them, just like in this film. Though there is bickering and some harsh words used by the family, it does represent a time when families stuck together and deep down loved and respected one another. If you get the chance to see this movie, then I am sure that you will enjoy it.

What really boosts THIS HAPPY BREED into the "superior" category of British films is the direction by David Lean and the two central performances by CELIA JOHNSON and ROBERT NEWTON as the heads of a rather ordinary household living the provincial life between two World Wars. And what is surprising is that this '44 film from the U.K. uses Technicolor in an age when most films, unless they were spectacular musicals, were filmed in B&W. The color photography adds a handsome touch to the otherwise unspectacular story that is more a character study of a marriage and family relationships.

CELIA JOHNSON does a magnificent job as the mother who raises a daughter (KAY WALSH) unsatisfied with her family's social status, who yearns to rise above what she perceives as too provincial and runs off with a married man. It's just one of the many episodic tales in this domestic drama but it's played with such intensity by Johnson that the reunion scene toward the end is heartbreaking to watch.

All of the saga which stretches between the two wars is episodic, told in a series of vignettes which I imagine were done in blackout style on the stage, for which the tale was written. But Lean has successfully managed the transfer to the screen and all of the performances are top notch, particularly ROBERT NEWTON as the concerned father, JOHN MILLS as a man caught in an unrequited love affair and STANLEY HOLLOWAY who provides a good deal of comic relief as a boozy neighborhood friend of Newton.

Noel Coward evidently had more success in telling domestic tales with sharp observation of characters than Edna Ferber did with her own American sagas in which her characters seemed to get lost among all the vast territory she covered.

Summing up: Well worth watching for the performances alone.

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.