This Happy Breed (1944) – full review!

After having worked together successfully on the war drama In Which We Serve (1942) producer Noel Coward and director David Lean did so again on this “slice of life” (comedy) drama about a British family; they would repeat their success with Blithe Spirit (1945) and Brief Encounter (1945). This one was based on Coward’s play (and his own life experiences from 1919 to 1939) which was adapted by Lean Anthony Havelock-Allan and Ronald Neame. Appropriately filmed in muted Technicolor the story starts slowly (but give it a chance!) and in the end feels like a more serious British middle class version of the American turn of the (twentieth) century comedy Life with Father (1947) featuring Robert Newton (in lieu of Coward) and Celia Johnson in the parental roles (instead of William Powell and Irene Dunne).

Newton plays Frank Gibbons who’s just returned from years with his regiment fighting World War I. He and his dependable wife Ethel (Johnson) have just moved into a middle class urban flat in which they’ll allow her sister Sylvia (Alison Leggatt) and mother Mrs. Flint (Amy Veness) to live; Edie (Merle Tottenham) is their hardworking housekeeper. Frank is thrilled to discover that their next door neighbor is Bob Mitchell (Sterling Holloway) a chap he’d met during the war. The Gibbons have three children: Queenie (Kay Walsh) Vi (Eileen Erskine) and Reg (John Blythe); Bob has a wife Nora (who’s never seen) and son Billy (John Mills). Over twenty years of living in this town-home many things happen which bond separate and reunite the family. Throughout Frank’s relationship with Ethel is both loving and enduring; each accepts and respects the other even though they have differences of opinion. Ethel tolerates Frank’s best friend Bob even though it seems like the two are always getting drunk together. Of course Frank is pretty special too having to live with an opinionated mother-in-law and spinster sister-in-law that are always bickering and/or picking at each other.

Guy Verney plays a post-war liberal Sam Leadbitter; he’s concerned with the plight of the poor. Older than Reg Sam wields a powerful influence over his younger friend’s ideology; he later marries Reg’s sister Vi. Queenie is “too good” for her own family; she wants to better herself and though she loves neighbor-sailor Billy refuses to settle for a common life. Reg later marries his sisters’ friend Phyllis (Betty Fleetwood) whereas Queenie runs off with a married man and becomes estranged from the family especially her heartbroken mother. Frank notes how ironic it is that he and his wife’s chosen lifestyle is too common for their eldest daughter yet too comfortable to suit his (liberal) son. Reg is later killed in an automobile accident that Sam survives. Spurned by Queenie Billy had traveled with the Navy; years later he discovers Queenie (who’s not quite destitute) in France married her and returned her to her family. Her father Frank is thrilled and instantly rushes to see his daughter. Ethel had maintained a cold exterior during Queenie’s absence but she quickly comes around; she’s grateful to Billy and forgives her daughter before the two embrace.

Purchase this DVD Collection now at