THIS HAPPY BREED
UK, 1944, 105 minutes, Colour.
Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, Amy Vaness, Alison Leggatt, Stanley Holloway, John Mills, Kay Walsh.
Directed by David Lean.
This Happy Breed is a quotation from Shakespeare from Richard II. It is a glorification of England, “This sceptred isle, this happy breed.”
The film was based on a play by Noel Coward, Coward’s attempt to present ordinary English people, their pluck and stubbornness during the period between the wars. Robert Newton, in a rather toned-down performance, is the head of the Gibbons family. His wife is played by Celia Johnson (who was to feature in the celebrated film version of Coward’s Brief Encounter, also directed by Lean). The other family featured is the Mitchell family, with the brothers played by Stanley Holloway and John Mills. Mills was to work for Lean in such films as Great Expectations, Hobson’s Choice and was to win an Oscar for best supporting actor for Ryan’s Daughter. Kay Walsh appears as Queenie Gibbons. She was to appear to great effect as Nancy in Lean’s Oliver Twist.
While Noel Coward is best remembered for his glittering and smart plays such as Hay Fever and Private Lives, he was also very patriotic, contributing to the screenplay and performance of In Which We Serve, collaborating with Lean.
David Lean was at the beginning of his directing career. He was to make Blithe Spirit, which meant that his first four films were collaborations with Coward. He then moved to his classic adaptations of Dickens with Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. From 1955 he made only eight films over thirty years. They were long, epic in their style: Summertime with Katharine Hepburn, The Bridge on the River Kwai for which he won an Oscar for best director, Lawrence of Arabia for which he won another best director Oscar, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter and A Passage to India.
This film is the archetypal portrait of the image of British people, especially up to the period of World War Two.
1. The meaning and tone of the title? The Shakespearian background of Henry II? The patriotism and the glory of England? Was this tone evident throughout the whole film?
2. The film is considered a classic. Why does it deserve its reputation? What is its main impact? What are its main qualities?
3. The film was produced after World War Two. Its impact in England then? The contrast of its impact now? Has it lessened or continued?
4. Comment on the quality of humanity throughout the film, the presentation of human beings and human situations. Comment on the quality of realism: London, the house, the people and the ordinariness of their interactions, the details of ordinary life. Comment on the British quality of the film, the actors and their styles, the English values commented on, criticised, praised.
5. How successful was the presentation of London? the structure of the film and London of England? The focus on the years of living in the house? The theme of 'between wars'? The presentation of the dates and the choosing of various years for emphasis? The structure of a family growing up? How did the audience respond to this structure and how did it involve them?
6. Comment on the use of colour for this film. How was it to the film's advantage? If the film had been made in black and white? Comment on the musical commentary of the film.
7. How typical a British family of the time was the Gibbons family? How did the film present them as typical? The middle working class, their background, their life in London, work, recreation, values, ways, the detail of weddings and funerals The ordinary audience identifying with the family? How was interest in the family kept? How much sympathy for the various characters? How much warmth? The presentation of their good and bad and audience response to this?
8. What were the main characteristics of this family? As a family, as British? What values did they hold and stand for? Twentieth century values, British values? Family life, work and recreation, love and bickering etc.? Patriotism and war?
9. How well did the film keep Ethel and Frank as central? Their settling into the house, Frank gaining work after the war, the family, the responsibility for the family, love, the reserve between Ethel and Frank, the happiness of next door neighbours? The fairground sequences and the relationship between the two? The Christmas sequence, weddings, shared sorrows? How good a man was Frank as a husband and father, as an army man, as a friend, as a suburban man with his garden, his offering advice to his children, advice for Reg, warmth for Queenie? How good a wife and mother was Ethel? Her relationship to Frank? The quality of her love, her fussing and complaining and tiredness? Her relationship to her sister-in-law?
10. How interesting a couple were Vi and Sam? Sam as a rabble rouser, Vi telling him off yet loving him? The details of the wedding? The presentation of them in the years after their marriage? How did they change? A typical young couple of the time?
11. The presentation of Reg? Being led astray by Sam? Phyllis' rebuke of him and worry? The scene with his father when he was wounded? His preparation for his marriage? The advice of his father to be faithful?, The suddenness of his death and its impact on the family?
12. How well did the film show the contrast between Queenie and the others? Her bickering with Sam at the Christmas dinner? Her wilful attitudes? Her love for Bill and yet her presentation of herself in truth? Why was she dissatisfied with the Gibbons, life? Her behaviour in the preparations for the wedding? The fact that she drove herself away from home? That nobody could tell her that she was making a mistake? The regrets of the family? Was Ethel's reaction too severe? Was it understandable, do we agree with it? Was Frank's attitude more realistic? How happy did the film become when she returned? The possibilities of her salvaging her mistakes? The support of Bill?
13. How interesting a family were the Mitchells? The fact that the mother was never seen although talked about? Bob as an army man, a friend of Frank, a good neighbour? The visits that he made, the drinking sessions together, the sentiment when they moved away from London? The realistic presentation of neighbours in Bob Mitchell? As a sailor, his friendship with the family, with Reg, his love for Queenie and wanting to be faithful to her, his disappointment and his coping with this, his helping Queenie when she needed it, future happiness and its possibilities, the irony of their going to Singapore before the war?
14. How humorous and realistic was the presentation of Mrs Flint and Sylvia, the realism of their bickering, the hurt in the family, the dramatization of neglect, of illness? The grief of Mrs Flint at Reg and Phyllis' death? The last time we saw her? Sylvia's change and the humour of her going spiritualistic?
15. How much did this film rely on detail for its impact? How well done was this?
16. Comment on the filming techniques. the use of close-ups of family groups, of tracking shots, especially at the announcement of Reg and Phyllis' death, the camera remaining in the room and Ethel and Frank coming into the house etc.
17. How important were the themes of this film: family life, men and women, ordinariness, war, patriotism?
18. How important was the background of Baldwin and the war, people's reactions and patriotism, Bob's and Frank's attitudes and their contrast? What impact would this have had in the aftermath of World War Two? The film's message for its time?
