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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 8, No. 9. July 11, 1945

Film — * * * * comedy

Film

* * * * comedy

For the benefit of those Comedy who are retching slightly at the thought of four stars for THIS HAPPY BREED, let me say at once that they are not presented for any inherent merit in the story, but for the almost peerless performances and the several superb directional touches of the film. If however, you can get over your feeling that that super-optimist Coward can't really mean what he says, you've got to pay a tribute to his peculiar insight into British character and family life. He is able to present the just-slightly-larger-than-life portrayal of character that is the essence of good film and stage writing. But I think that Coward's greatest achievement is his resolute refusal to compromise with poor acting. In his three films so far there has not been one incompetent or slipshod or careless actor. I am quite sure that no other director can truthfully say as much. Coward insists that his minor characters are as important as the leads. One of the very best characters in THIS HAPPY BREED is the slavery in the Gibbons household; it is a tiny cameo, but quite perfect. The people in this film are real.

The direction is equally good. Quite the most subtle piece of directing I've ever seen is the sequence dealing with the abdication of Edward VIII. It is handled in the only possible way, delicately, and without actually referring to the event.

Less fortunate is the treatment of the Solid Virtues of the English Home as against the wild and frothy carryings on of the Young Red. Progressive sentiments are dealt with in the most effective way possible—by making them objects of derision. And, after all his youthful foolishness, the Radical realises that maybe the Good Old British Way is the Best. The Good Old British Way is the way that led to the criminal policies of Baldwin and Chamberlain. It is interesting to see these gentry decried in the film, but we may well remember that the people who now condemn them were their supporters not so very long ago. The treatment of the radical is highly dangerous to liberal thinking, and is well in line with the constant reference in the British elections to "wild-eyed Socialist planning."

It seems a great pity that it has taken a total war to make good British films, but there can be little denying that the best films produced in the last six years have been British. This Happy Breed is well up at the top of the list.