DVD/150: THIS HAPPY BREED (David Lean, 1944)

In 1939, Noel Coward wrote THIS HAPPY BREED about a working-class family; he starred in the play, which played alternate performances with his more debonair comedy PRESENT LAUGHTER, but by the time the film was made, the role went to Robert Newton.

David Lean, who had co-directed the previous year's IN WHICH WE SERVE with Coward, here was sole director for the first time. he also adapted the play with his Cineguild colleagues Anthony Havelock-Allan and Ronald Neame who also was the cinematographer.

In 1919, Frank and Ethel Gibbons move into a Clapham terraced house with their three children Queenie, Reg and Vi, Frank's shrill spinster sister Sylvia and Ethel's opinionated mother Mrs Flint, and over 20 years we follow their happinesses and tragedies against the events that shaped the period.

Frank learns their neighbour is army pal Bob Mitchell whose sailor son Billy soon loves Queenie.

Shelf or charity shop?  A shelfer.  Although Coward's view of his working-class characters has a patronising tone, he knows how to make the main characters 'pop' and while David Lean had concerns about directing actors - on IN WHICH WE SERVE Coward handled the actors while Lean did the action sequences - he needn't have worried with such a talented cast, and he whips the action along at pace. Robert Newton.s performance has not dated well but Celia Johnson is wonderful as the loving but moral Mrs Gibbons, a performance which won her the US National Board of Review award for Best Actress.  While all the characters seem to take turns saying "There'll be trouble and no mistake" or "Well I'm sorry I'm sure!", there are stand-outs from Amy Veness as Celia Johnson's formidable mother, Stanley Holloway is always a delight as salt-of-the-earth neighbour Bob, John Mills gives a better-than-usual performance as sailor Billy - the only cast member from the original play - and Kay Walsh, who was married to Lean at the time, is excellent as the snobbish Queenie, a Clapham Bovary who yearns for a better life.

DVD/150: OLIVER TWIST (David Lean, 1948)

Two years after GREAT EXPECTATIONS, David Lean returned to Dickens for a second time with OLIVER TWIST.

Lean and co-adapter Stanley Haynes stripped away any characters that pulled focus from Oliver's perilous adventures which leaves a clear narrative for Dickens' characters to come to fully-rounded life.

John Howard Davies was a perfect Oliver, never fading off screen even among the actors around him all giving full-blooded, characterful perforrmances.

Anthony Newley is a wonderful Artful Dodger while Kay Walsh (then Mrs David Lean) is a fiery Nancy - her murder scene remains as terrifying as when I first saw it as Bill Sykes' bulldog frantically scratches at the door to escape her screams.

Robert Newton is an average Bill Sykes but all are eclipsed by Alec Guinness' Fagin. Just 34, he is unforgettable - Lean requested a bigger nose for him as the original make-up looked more like Jesus!

Shelf or charity shop?  A definite shelf. Controversy erupted when it was released - it was banned for two years in the USA as the character of Fagin was judged anti-semitic (which probably explains why it received no Academy Award nominations). When finally released seven minutes of Guinness' performance were edited out.  There were calls to ban it in Germany and in Israel too - but it was banned in Egypt for making Fagin too sympathetic!  OLIVER TWIST is memorable also because of the contributions of Guy Green's cinematography and John Bryan's production design, both returning after GREAT EXPECTATIONS.  Speaking of which Kay Walsh - who had suggested the way that film should end - here was responsible for OLIVER TWIST's moody opening as Oliver's mother battles a storm across the moors to reach the workhouse. 

 

Dvd/150: JAMAICA INN (Alfred Hitchcock, 1939)

Wanting to leave England to launch his Hollywood career with an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA, Hitchcock first had to make what would be his last British film for 33 years and he disliked it.

Irish orphan Mary Yellen (Maureen O'Hara's first major role) arrives at Jamaica Inn to live with her aunt but discovers her uncle is the leader of a ship-wrecking crew of murderous plunderers.

However the film is thrown off-kilter by the unabashed hamming of co-producer Charles Laughton as the local squire Sir Humphrey Pengallon.  Du Maurier was unhappy her plot was changed to accommodate his over-written role and Hitchcock was unhappy that for the first time he was faced with a star who could overrule his ideas.

The characterful supporting cast mostly follow Laughton's lead but Robert Newton is uncharacteristically muted to the point of invisibility.  He also resembles Harpo Marx!

Shelf or charity shop? For what it is... shelf