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,
Shakespeare – Richard II Act II Scene I
The 1944 movie ‘This Happy Breed’, which takes its name from the Shakespeare quotation above, is in my opinion one of the masterpieces of British cinema. It is also one of the masterworks of both the playwright Noel Coward, who wrote the play on which the film script is based on and the director David Lean.
This film tells the story of a working class family English family during the inter war years of the 20th century. It shows the family, and especially the ex fighting men adjusting to life in peacetime and the changes that this period brought. It shows their triumphs and tragedies and the conflict of family life.
The movie takes us through such momentous events as the General Strike of 1926, the rise and fall of Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement and doesn’t shy away from the subject of Moseley’s Jew hatred. We also see the nation, through the eyes of the family, deal with the death of King George V, a monarch who had been on the throne for most of this family’s lives since 1910 and the constitutional convulsions of the Abdication Crisis. We also see this ordinary family start to realise that World War One was not the ‘war to end all wars’ that they have may have hoped it would be and start the preparations to fight the war precipitated by Hitler’s aggression.
This film is one of my all time favourites and I was delighted to see it available and have put it up in order to educate people on just how great the British film industry once was and how high quality its output could be. I love this film and hope others feel the same
