Robert Newton and Celia Johnson head the cast in David Lean’s “This Happy Breed”

This Happy Breed (1944) is a British drama directed by David Lean and starring Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, Stanley Holloway, and John Mills. The screenplay is by Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, and Ronald Neame. The screenplay is based on the play This Happy Breed (1939) by Noel Coward.

The story dramatizes the life of a suburban London family from 1919 to the early years of World War II.

Robert Newton and Celia Johnson

David Lean (1908 - 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He is considered one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time. Lean started out working in silent films where he worked his way up from teaboy to film editor. He made the transition to talking pictures and in directed his first feature In Which We Serve in 1942 which was made in collaboration with Noel Coward. Lean collaborated with Coward on This Happy Breed (1944), Blithe Spirit (1945), and Brief Encounter (1945) widely considered one of the greatest British films ever made. Today Lean is best known in America for his epic productions of films like The Bride on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984).

Robert Newton (1905 – 1956) was a popular English actor and is probably best remembered for his role as Long John Silver in the Walt Disney version of Treasure Island (1950). His exaggerated accent in that role is credited with what we consider the “pirate voice.” Newton was a popular player in London’s West End and he also appeared on Broadway, replacing Laurence Olivier in Private Lives. He made several films in Hollywood including The Desert Rats (1953), Les Miserables (1952), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), and The High and the Mighty (1954).

Celia Johnson (1908 - 1982) was an English actress who was a star on the stage, film, and television. She was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance in Brief Encounter. Other films Johnson starred in include This Happy Breed (1944) and Captain's Paradise (1953). Later in her career, Johnson won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).

John Mills (1908 - 2005) was an English actor who made over 100 films in the United States and in Great Britain. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Ryan’s Daughter (1970). Mills worked on the stage in London in the Noel Coward revue Words and Music (1932). He made his film debut in the U.K. in 1932 and appeared with Ida Lupino in The Ghost Camera (1933). He had a supporting role in Goodbye Mr. Chips (1939) starring Robert Donat. Mills starred as Pip in Great Expectations (1946) to great acclaim and popular box office. Mills continued acting into the 2000s.

This Happy Breed trivia

• Laurence Olivier is the narrator during the film’s opening.
• David Lean’s first Technicolor movie and first solo directing credit.
• John Mills was the only cast member to reprise his role for the film.
• Robert Donat was offered the role of Frank Gibbons but turned it down.
• Celia Johnson plays John Mills’s mother-in-law but they were both the same age in real life.

 

To watch the film on YouTube, click here or the link below.

 

Discussion questions

1. Do you think Lean had an underlying message in the telling of the story of the Gibbons family?
2. Did Newton and Johnson make a believable married couple?
3. Were the family situations realistic? Could you relate to any of them?
4. Did the situation with Queenie (Kay Walsh) ring true?
5. Did you have a favorite character or scene?
6. Were you surprised that the film was in Technicolor? Was color a plus?

 

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