This Happy Breed (1944)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

Anthony Havelock-Allan (adaptation)
David Lean (adaptation)

Release Date:

12 April 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Noel Coward's attempt to show how the ordinary people lived between the wars. Just after WWI the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs...

Plot Keywords:

1920s | Mother Daughter Estrangement | Family Relationships | Slice Of Life | WWI Veteran

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Robert Newton	...	Frank Gibbons
Celia Johnson	...	Ethel Gibbons
Amy Veness	...	Mrs. Flint
Alison Leggatt	...	Aunt Sylvia
Stanley Holloway	...	Bob Mitchell
John Mills	...	Billy Mitchell
Kay Walsh	...	Queenie Gibbons
Eileen Erskine	...	Vi
John Blythe	...	Reg Gibbons
Guy Verney	...	Sam Leadbitter
Betty Fleetwood	...	Phyllis Blake
Merle Tottenham	...	Edie

Also Known As:

Noel Coward's This Happy Breed (UK) (complete title)

Runtime:

Germany:105 min | USA:115 min | UK:114 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:M/12 | Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1996) | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Alderbrook Road, Clapham, London, England, UK

Company:

Noel Coward-Cineguild

Trivia:

The title 'This Happy Breed' is taken from a monologue of John of Gaunt's in Shakespeare's Richard II, act II, scene i, which is widely renowned for its stirring pro-Anglicism. It reads, in part, 'This happy breed of men, this little world, / This precious stone set in the silver sea, / Which serves it in the office of a wall, / Or as a moat defensive to a house, / Against the envy of less happier lands, / This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.'

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the furniture is being taken into the kitchen in the opening scenes an extra is reflected in the glass of the kitchen door just after Sylvia enters with the groceries.

Quotes:

Ethel Gibbons: There will always be wars as long as men are such fools as to want to go to them.

Movie Connections:

References Desert Love (1920)

Soundtrack:

Over There

small-scale London between the wars

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.