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David Lean brings to vivid emotional life Noël Coward’s epic chronicle of a working-class family in the London suburbs over the course of two decades. Robert Newton and Celia Johnson are surpassingly affecting as Frank and Ethel Gibbons, a couple with three children whose modest household is touched by joy and tragedy from the tail end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second. With its mix of politics and melodrama, This Happy Breed is a quintessential British domestic drama, featuring subtly expressive Technicolor cinematography by Ronald Neame and a remarkable supporting cast including John Mills, Stanley Holloway, and Kay Walsh.
Original Release
05/28/1944
US Release
04/12/1947
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Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Robert Newton | Frank Gibbons |
Celia Johnson | Ethel Gibbons |
John Mills | Billy Mitchell |
Kay Walsh | Queenie / Queenie Gibbons |
Stanley Holloway | Bob Mitchell |
Amy Veness | Mrs. Flint |
Alison Leggatt | Aunt Sylvia |
Eileen Erskine | Vi / Vi Gibbons |
John Blythe | Reg / Reg Gibbons |
Guy Verney | Sam Leadbitter |
Directors
Writers
David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Noël Coward
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Robert Newton | Frank Gibbons |
Celia Johnson | Ethel Gibbons |
John Mills | Billy Mitchell |
Kay Walsh | Queenie / Queenie Gibbons |
Stanley Holloway | Bob Mitchell |
Amy Veness | Mrs. Flint |
Alison Leggatt | Aunt Sylvia |
Eileen Erskine | Vi / Vi Gibbons |
John Blythe | Reg / Reg Gibbons |
Guy Verney | Sam Leadbitter |
Betty Fleetwood | Phyllis Blake |
Merle Tottenham | Edie |
Robin Burns | Man in Crowd |
Mabel Etherington | Lady in Crowd / Woman in Crowd |
Dan Lester | Man in Crowd |
Jack May | Mourner |
Jim Morris | Man Operating Small Boats at Fairground |
Pat Ryan | Passerby |
Jack Sharp | Removal Man |
Laurence Olivier | Narrator (voice) |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Noël Coward | Producer |
Ronald Neame | Producer |