Reg becomes friendly with Sam, a staunch socialist, who is attracted to Vi. [1] Frank finds employment in a travel agency, arranging tours of Western Front battlefields, run by another old army chum. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian. The restored film was screened as part of a major David Lean retrospective at BFI Southbank in mid-2008.[8]. Just after World War I, the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. Beyond the profound effect of world events, such as these wars, on their lives, and the ebbs and flows of general western society in all aspects, husband and wife Frank and Ethel Gibbons have to hold their family together through other more personal events. We join the outrage and grief across the world for the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the fallen before 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. A drunken, abusive tavern-keeper's adulterous wife uses the backward son of a rigid, puritanical pharmacist who makes his entire family miserable. The most famous is probably "Brief Encounter" and the most war themed is "In Which We Serve", but "This Happy Breed" is the homefront movie. Check out our editors' picks for the movies and shows we're excited about this month, like Mortal Kombat, "Them," and Stowaway. Billy reveals they were married two weeks previously in the Plymouth Registry Office and he has brought her back to London; Ethel forgives her. Beyond the profound effect of world events, such as these wars, on their lives, and the ebbs and flows of general western society in all aspects, husband and wife Frank and Ethel Gibbons have to hold their family together through other more personal events. It proved to be the most successful British release of 1944 and the first of many critically acclaimed films directed by him. This Happy Breed ranks with 1949's One Woman's Story and 1950's Madeleine as the most obscure title in David Lean's canon. This Happy Breed This Happy Breed covers twenty years in the life of the Frank and Ethel Bibbons and their children, from the end of World War I to the beginning of World War II. And their three offspring, while generally getting along, are a disparate group. Wed 27 Jul 2011 13.50 EDT. [6], Lean insisted on filming This Happy Breed on three-strip Technicolor stock, although the film was difficult to acquire in Britain during the war. 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. Celia Johnson is superb ....the best scenes belong to neighbours Robert Newton and Stanley Holloway".[13]. (2.1) 3. In Charles Dickens' classic tale, an orphan wends his way from cruel apprenticeship to den of thieves in search of a true home. Only son Reg is easily swayed, especially by his best friend Sam Leadbitter, who wants to see social justice at all cost. Coward had played Frank Gibbons on stage, and he wanted to reprise the role on screen. Technicians had to filter the noise between individual words to eliminate static. They lead an ordinary life throughout the years, but everything changes when World War II breaks out. "[12], Channel 4 rated it 3½ out of five stars and added, "A toff propagandist's England, of course. (1944). And their three offspring, while generally getting along, are a disparate group. In 1928, Charleston dance mania arrives in England and Queenie wins a dance contest. [4] Donat refused the role because he objected to the final speech delivered by his character in the stage version. Vi blames Sam, who had brought her brother to the area, but eventually her anger dissipates and she marries him. 8 Which serves it in the office of a wall. Frank, Ethel and Bob attend a Victory Parade in the summer of 1919. This Happy Breed (1944) - Trivia - IMDb The comment early in the movie about the cat and buttering its paws comes from a technique used when a cat moves houses. Lean felt the playwright's public persona of witty sophistication was so far removed from his humble lower class origins that audiences would be unable to accept him as Gibbons, and he initially offered the role to Robert Donat instead. 9 Or as a moat defensive to a house, 10 Against the envy of less happier lands, 11 This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, The plot is okay it’s a pretty predictable but well rounded story. A man and his second wife are haunted by the ghost of his first wife. King George V dies (January 1936) and Frank and Ethel join the crowds filing past his coffin. An American spinster's dream of romance finally becomes a bittersweet reality when she meets a handsome--but married--Italian man while vacationing in Venice. Opening in 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War, the film focuses on the Gibbons family - Frank, his wife Ethel, their three children Reg, Vi and Queenie, his widowed sister Sylvia and Ethel's mother - after they settle in a rented house in Clapham, South London. Besides their immediate family, their household consists of her mother, Mrs. Flint, who is always feigning that she is on her deathbed, and his spinster sister Sylvia Gibbons, who clings to odd notions of life as her only sense of independence, the two not getting along in seeing the other an intrusion on the household. They cling to a nice house in the suburbs his days in the stage version at BFI Southbank mid-2008. King Edward VIII abdicates ( 11 December 1936 ) and frank and Ethel faced... 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