They Were Sisters

Last updated

They Were Sisters
Theyweresisters.jpg
UK release poster
Directed by Arthur Crabtree
Written by Roland Pertwee
Based on They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
Produced by Harold Huth
Starring Phyllis Calvert
James Mason
Hugh Sinclair
Anne Crawford
Peter Murray Hill
Dulcie Gray
Cinematography Jack Cox
Edited byCharles Knott
Music by Louis Levy
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release dates
  • 2 July 1945 (1945-07-02)(UK)
  • 23 July 1946 (1946-07-23)(US)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box officeover £300,000 (UK) [1] or over £1 million [2]

They Were Sisters is a 1945 British melodrama film directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures and starring Phyllis Calvert and James Mason. The film was produced by Harold Huth, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. They Were Sisters is noted for its frank, unsparing depiction of marital abuse at a time when the subject was rarely discussed openly. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas. [3]

Contents

Plot

The film focuses on the lives of three sisters: Lucy, Vera and Charlotte. It opens at a dance in 1919, establishing their personalities and following them through courtship and marriage. While the sisters remain close to one another, their characters and paths through life are very different.

Lucy is the most stable, sensible, practical and in a happy marriage, whose greatest sadness is her inability to have children, which she sublimates by lavishing affection on her nephews and nieces. Vera is married with a child but the relationship is humdrum and loveless and she is restless and bored, indulging her appetite for adventure and excitement through a series of flirtations, which sometimes go beyond the bounds of the socially acceptable. Charlotte is a cowed drudge, suffering emotional abuse at the hands of her manipulative, brutal husband Geoffrey, who belittles and humiliates her in front of their three children.

The film shifts between the three households but its main focus is the way in which Lucy and Vera have to look on, unable to provide effective help despite their best attempts, as Charlotte's treatment by her husband (who, it is strongly implied, is also engaging in an unhealthy relationship with their elder daughter) becomes ever more shocking and she descends into alcoholism to blur her despair. A final attempt by Charlotte to flee Geoffrey ends in tragedy. Vera's marriage, too, crumbles as her husband discovers her in a serious extra-marital relationship and petitions for divorce. The film ends by showing Charlotte's and Vera's children being cared for by the childless Lucy.

Cast

Background

Unlike most of the hugely successful melodramas made by Gainsborough during the mid-1940s, They Were Sisters has a near-contemporary rather than a costume setting, spanning the years from the end of the First World War, to the late 1930s. The screenplay was developed by Pertwee from a popular novel of the same name by Dorothy Whipple, published in 1943.

They Were Sisters features the spouses of both Mason and Calvert; Pamela Mason (billed under her first married name Pamela Kellino, and playing Mason's daughter, despite being only seven years younger) and Peter Murray Hill. Mason later admitted that he acted most of his bullying, sadistic role with a permanent hangover as a result of his using drinking as a means of dealing with the frustration he felt from his role and the British film industry in general. [4]

Reception

The film being shown at a cinema in Surrey, England Guildford- Everyday Life in Wartime Guildford, Surrey, England, UK, 1945 D25191.jpg
The film being shown at a cinema in Surrey, England

The film was very popular at the British box office, being one of the biggest hits of the year. [5] [6] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winners' at the box office in 1945 Britain were The Seventh Veil, with "runners up" being (in release order), Madonna of the Seven Moons, Old Acquaintance, Frenchman's Creek, Mrs Parkington, Arsenic and Old Lace, Meet Me in St Louis, A Song to Remember, Since You Went Away, Here Come the Waves, Tonight and Every Night, Hollywood Canteen, They Were Sisters, The Princess and the Pirate, The Adventures of Susan, National Velvet, Mrs Skefflington, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Nob Hill, Perfect Strangers, Valley of Decision, Conflict and Duffy's Tavern. British "runners up" were They Were Sisters, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Perfect Strangers, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Waterloo Road, Blithe Spirit, The Way to the Stars, I'll Be Your Sweetheart, Dead of Night, Waltz Time and Henry V. [7]

Critical

The Times wrote, "the merit of this long and intelligent film lies in the skill with which it establishes the personalities of the sisters...the acting throughout has strength and sincerity." [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Mason</span> British actor (1909–1984)

James Neville Mason was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films included The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945). He starred in Odd Man Out (1947), the first recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Calvert</span> British film actress (1915–2002)

Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill, known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey (1943) and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued her acting career for another 50 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Kent</span> English actress (1921–2013)

Jean Kent, born Joan Mildred Field was an English film and television actress.

<i>The Man in Grey</i> 1943 film by Leslie Arliss

The Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures; it is considered to be the first of a series of period costume dramas now known as the "Gainsborough melodramas". It was directed by Leslie Arliss and produced by Edward Black from a screenplay by Arliss and Margaret Kennedy that was adapted by Doreen Montgomery from the 1941 novel The Man in Grey by Eleanor Smith. The film's sets were designed by Walter Murton.

Arthur Crabtree was a British cinematographer and film director. He directed films with comedians such as Will Hay, the Crazy Gang and Arthur Askey and several of the Gainsborough Melodramas.

<i>Madonna of the Seven Moons</i> 1945 British film by Arthur Crabtree

Madonna of the Seven Moons is a 1945 British drama film starring Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and Patricia Roc. Directed by Arthur Crabtree for Gainsborough Pictures, the film was produced by Rubeigh James Minney, with cinematography from Jack Cox and screenplay by Roland Pertwee. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas of the mid-1940s popular with WW2-era female audiences.

<i>Fanny by Gaslight</i> (film) 1944 British film starring James Mason

Fanny by Gaslight is a 1944 British drama film, directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Roc</span> English actress (1915–2003)

Patricia Roc was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945), though she only made one film in Hollywood, Canyon Passage (1946). She also appeared in Millions Like Us (1943), Jassy (1945), The Brothers (1947) and When the Bough Breaks (1947).

<i>Jassy</i> (film) 1947 British film

Jassy is a 1947 British colour film historical melodrama directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Margaret Lockwood, Patricia Roc and Dennis Price. It was written by Dorothy Christie, Campbell Christie and Geoffrey Kerr based on the 1944 novel by Norah Lofts. Set in the early 19th century, it is a Gainsborough melodrama, the only one to be made in Technicolor, and was the last "official" Gainsborough melodrama.

<i>Caravan</i> (1946 film) 1946 British film directed by Arthur Crabtree

Caravan is a 1946 British black-and-white drama film directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was one of the Gainsborough melodramas and is based on the 1942 novel Caravan by Eleanor Smith.

The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures between 1943 and 1947 that conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films that had similar themes that were usually developed by the same film crew and frequently recurring actors who played similar characters in each. They were mostly based on popular books by female novelists and they encompassed costume dramas, such as The Man in Grey (1943) and The Wicked Lady (1945), and modern-dress dramas, such as Love Story (1944) and They Were Sisters (1945). The popularity of the films with audiences peaked mid-1940s when cinema audiences consisted primarily of women. The influence of the films led to other British producers releasing similarly themed works, such as The Seventh Veil (1945), Pink String and Sealing Wax (1945), Hungry Hill (1947), The White Unicorn (1947), Idol of Paris (1948), and The Reluctant Widow (1950) and often with the talent that made Gainsborough melodramas successful.

<i>Broken Journey</i> 1948 British film by Ken Annakin

Broken Journey is a 1948 British drama film directed by Ken Annakin and featuring Phyllis Calvert, James Donald, Margot Grahame, Raymond Huntley and Guy Rolfe. Passengers and crew strugge to survive after their airliner crashes on top of a mountain; based on a true-life accident in the Swiss Alps.

<i>The Magic Bow</i> 1946 film

The Magic Bow is a 1946 British musical film based on the life and loves of the Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. It was directed by Bernard Knowles. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>The Man in Grey</i> (novel) 1941 British novel by Lady Eleanor Smith

The Man in Grey was a novel by the British writer Lady Eleanor Smith first published in 1941. It was a melodrama set in Regency Britain. A young woman unhappily married to a cold aristocrat falls in love with a strolling actor, but her hopes of eloping to happiness are wrecked by an old school friend who murders her in order to be able to marry her husband.

<i>The Upturned Glass</i> 1947 British film by Lawrence Huntington

The Upturned Glass is a 1947 British film noir psychological thriller directed by Lawrence Huntington and starring James Mason, Rosamund John and Pamela Kellino. The screenplay concerns a leading brain surgeon who murders a woman he believes to be responsible for the death of the woman he loved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Mason</span> English actress and author (1916–1996)

Pamela Mason, also known as Pamela Kellino, was an English actress, author, and screenwriter, known for being the creative partner and first wife of English actor James Mason.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Huth</span> British actor and film producer (1892–1967)

Harold Huth was a British actor, film director and producer.

<i>Child in the House</i> 1956 British film by Cy Endfield

Child in the House is a 1956 British drama film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Phyllis Calvert, Eric Portman and Stanley Baker. It is based on the novel A Child in the House by Janet McNeill. A girl struggles to cope with her uncaring relatives.

<i>Time Out of Mind</i> (1947 film) 1947 film by Robert Siodmak

Time Out of Mind is a 1947 American film noir drama film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Phyllis Calvert, Robert Hutton and Ella Raines. Made by Universal Pictures on a large budget of $1,674,500, the film was not a commercial success. The British actress Calvert was a major star in Britain and other countries for her roles in the Gainsborough Melodramas.

<i>Lady Possessed</i> 1952 American film by Roy Kellino

Lady Possessed is a 1952 American film noir mystery film directed by William Spier and Roy Kellino and starring James Mason and June Havoc. Mason and his wife Pamela produced and wrote the film themselves, based on Pamela's novel Del Palma. They chose Pamela's ex-husband Roy Kellino, with whom she remained close, to direct the film. It was a critical and commercial failure, losing the Masons much of the money they had invested in it.

References

  1. "Actor's Views May Bring Ban". The Sydney Morning Herald . National Library of Australia. 13 September 1945. p. 2. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  2. "English Star". Western Mail . Vol. 61, no. 3, 207. Western Australia. 14 February 1946. p. 26. Retrieved 9 September 2017 via National Library of Australia.
  3. Vagg, Stephen (29 January 2020). "Why Stars Stop Being Stars: Margaret Lockwood". Filmink.
  4. Macnab, Geoffrey (30 October 2003). "Odd Man Out". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  5. Robert Murphy, Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48, p 207
  6. Gaumont-British Picture: Increased Net Profit, The Observer, 4 November 1945
  7. Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout : reinventing women for wartime British cinema. Princeton University Press. p. 232.
  8. "They Were Sisters (1945) - Articles - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies.