Dandy Forsdyke

Is this the film where one woman says to another, something like, "So help me, one more word from you and I'll slap you so hard I'll make your teeth rattle!"

If not, it should be.

hankoler

A great film but Iv'e said this before about this film , at the end, they move from the house with the grandchild into a flat , not something I would choose to do.

stevie boy

I assume that they retired to the coast to something smaller.

CaptainWaggett

They're moving out of London because of the war, aren't they? Presumably the house was rented and a retired travel agent wouldn't have had a particularly generous pension. It must have been quite a large house - there were three adults as well as the children so probably four bedrooms.

Harleybloke

The shot of the chest with 'Singapore' on it, set things up nicely.

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

Bilmo

It is, indeed, the film where the sister says to the grandmother that she'll slap her so hard that her teeth will rattle. I also like it when, after granny has died, Robert Newton says that "She neither passed on, passed over or passed out: she DIED!"

It is an extremely clever portrait of how life used to be. We may feel agitated by it now, with all of our freedoms and rights, but it shows very clearly the way people lived and, indeed, the differences between then and now. I am not altogether convinced that the way we live now is actually better.

southwold55

This is my almost all time favourite British film and is a wonderful piece of propaganda at the same time .It seems to encompass everything British while showing an ordinary family of the times dealing with the things familes deal with -death ,accidents ,crochety old relations ,romance,the efects of politics on everday life,and more.

Robert Newton as the father has some of the best speeches in the film and Celia Johnson is wonderful as the mother .

stevie boy

Robert Newton's performance was the greatest that I have ever seen.Brilliant

stuart.scot

I agree This Happy Breed is a truly great film, but I wonder if Noel Coward was gulity of patronising the working classes. As far as I believe director David Lean had to tone down some of Coward's play.

I'll tell you what I mean. During The General Strike Newton's Frank Gibbons was along with Stanley Holloway's Bob Mitchell volunteer workers. They were regarded almost as heros for doing so, while Frank's son Reg and friend Sam Leadbetter were thought of as juvenile for supporting the strike. In reality many of the volunteers were regarded by the working classes as traitors, for not supporting the strike.

The other thing was the Gibbon's had a housekeeper. I don't think to many working class familes after WW1 could afford to employ one, particulary as three of the five women, Ethel, Sylvia and Frank's aging mother, were living in the house and didn't go out to work

That said it was a great film. The highlight for me was when Celia Johnson's Ethel welcomed back Kay Walsh's Queenie, three yrs after she disowned her daughter for running off with a married man.

Caine

It's starting in five minutes on TCM.

Better get my choc ice.


Oi....down in front!

Bilmo

A truly wonderful film. I never tire of watching it. The entire cast is completely believable and the acting is 100%. It's a really interesting piece of British history, as well as a good watch. I love the fatherly advice, Robert Newton gives to his son, on his wedding day. I also particularly love the female characters and their eccentricities.

So glad it's on DVD!

Caine

I sodding fell asleep......bloody flu!

earlb

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the dreadful upper class accents trying to be 'man in the street'.

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

stevie boy

Don't mind if I do

ewe

This Happy Breed

Restored, re-mastered and released on DVD tomorrow 15 September 2008

Restored as part of the David Lean Centenary Collection
now available as an individual release from ITV DVD with the aid of the BFI.
A massive restoration project that has taken years to complete.

Shown this month on Film Four as part of the David Lean Centenary celebration
this is one of the best full colour/sound restorations I have ever seen.

Price around £7.99