English Without Tears

Last updated

English Without Tears
English Without Tears (1944 film).jpg
Opening title card
Directed by Harold French
Written by Terence Rattigan
Anatole de Grunwald
Produced byAnatole de Grunwald
Starring Michael Wilding
Penelope Dudley-Ward
Lilli Palmer
Cinematography Bernard Knowles
Edited by Alan Jaggs
Music by Nicholas Brodszky
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors, England
Release dates
  • 28 July 1944 (1944-07-28)(London, England)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish

English Without Tears is a 1944 British romantic comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Michael Wilding, Penelope Dudley-Ward and Lilli Palmer. [1] It was released in the U.S. under the title Her Man Gilbey, as a reference to the classic Screwball comedy, My Man Godfrey (1936). [2] [3]

Contents

The film depicts the romance between a young English aristocrat and her family's butler. During World War II, the butler becomes an officer of the Royal Army Service Corps and the girl joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service. Their change in status and her maturity affect their relationship. The world around them is also transformed.

Plot

In July 1939, the top-hatted deliveryman from a Fortune and Weedon [4] carriage takes a basket of quail to the tradesman's entrance of Beauclerk House. [5] An elaborate process brings the birds to the dinner plates of Lady Christabel Beauclerk (Margaret Rutherford) and her nephew, Sir Cosmo Brandon (Roland Culver). a British delegate to the League of Nations in Geneva. A fanatical bird expert, Lady Christobel identifies the ”quail” as a thrush and sends the “tortured friend” away in horror. She commands third-generation butler Tom Gilbey (Michael Wilding) to join them in Geneva, where she will propose sanctuaries for British birds. The xenophobic Gilbey almost quits, but his father and grandfather tell him it is his duty. Home from school, Lady Christobel's niece, Joan Heseltine (Penelope Dudley-Ward), talks about equality with the butler, on whom she has a longstanding crush.

In Geneva, the party meets Polish political cartoonist Felix Dembowski (Albert Lieven) and French romantic novelist François de Freycinet (Claude Dauphin). The session and Norwegian interpreter Brigid Knudsen's (Lilli Palmer) translations provide a dose of dark humour.

Lady Christabel's outraged demands for sanctuaries and control of oil pollution are perceived as an attempt at British imperial expansion. One delegate engages Knudsen to find out more by vamping an oblivious Gilbey. A “romantic” row on the lake ends with Gilbey's appearance carrying a soaking Bridgid. The family speculates but ignores the issue. Joan springs to his defense—and tells them that she will love him forever.

2 October 1939. War has begun. Gilbey leaves to join the Territorial Army. Misled by Bonnie, Joan declares her love in a nearby tea shop. Citing her youth and class distinctions, he tells her it is hopeless. She refuses to give up. In May 1940, refugee Knudsen serendipitously encounters De Freycinet at the train station. Beauclerk House is The Sanctuary, housing European Allied officers. Gilbey, now a second lieutenant in the RASC, returns home to find Lady Christabel happily occupying his old room. He asks, hopefully after the rest of the family, and finds a mature, confident Joan teaching English to a large class of officers. At the tea shop, he explains how he has changed. He is now in love with her... Joan no longer loves him. He was “cold and inhuman and godlike”, and she knows hundreds of second lieutenants just like him.

Meanwhile, De Freycinet asks Brandon to get Knudsen a legitimate passport. Brandon assists, assuming, wrongly, that De Freycinet and Knudsen are lovers. At The Sanctuary, Gilbey gets advice on seduction from several officers, but he makes an awkward mess of putting it to use. De Freycinet and Dembowski vie for Joan's affections by trying to be her top pupil, taking extra lessons from Knudsen. Lady Christobel approves of De Freycinet's suit.

De Freycinet asks Brandon for another endorsement so Knudsen can join the Free Norwegian Forces. Brandon sends Gilbey to her apartment to confirm his belief that De Freycinet is her lover. Dembowski, De Freycinet and Joan arrive; the misunderstanding escalates; and Joan storms out. The three men plan to confront her, but cowardice prevails and at The Sanctuary's bar they drunkenly make up their differences and swear off women. Joan overhears and gives up on men. On 18 September 1940, she joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In December 1942 she is assigned to a notorious RASC major who ran through 6 typists in a month. It is Gilbey, now brusque, rude, demanding and intolerant, insisting that a staff member who has just given birth return to work. He tells an aide to get Joan a job she can do. In tears, she tells a sympathetic corporal that he is “wonderful”.

On his bicycle, a top-hatted Fortune and Weedon man delivers a basket of canned spam to Beauclerk House for the New Year's Eve United Nations Dance, where several of the film's couples come together. Tom and Joan “argue” about his being “out of reach.” He presses her against a pillar, and they kiss. Cut to the just-married couple running down the steps to the cheers of friends and family. Joan's new job: Gilbey's driver. “I endeavor to give every satisfaction,” she declares, saluting him.

Cast

Production

Harold French had directed the successful stage production of French without Tears starring Rex Harrison. He later called the film:

A bit of wickedness on Tolly de Grunwald’s part because it wasn’t good and made no real sense. Tolly, who was a lovely old villain, had found a backer and her persuaded Terry to lend his name to it. And of course Terry, who was then in the Air Force, needed the money. By the time we were shooting, I knew it wasn’t Terry’s dialogue. Penelope Dudley Ward was in it and she had a lovely comedy sense with a very light touch. [6]

Critical reception

In contemporary reviews, The Glasgow Herald felt the film suffered in comparison to Rattigan and de Grunwald's previous success, French Without Tears , and regretted the absence of director Anthony Asquith's "light, witty touch”. Wilding, "(is) pleasant as the embodiment of the joke and Penelope Ward is charming as the trimmings to it. Roland Culver is beautifully suave in a small part, and Margaret Rutherford has a nice bit of philanthropic lunacy to do"; [3] Across the pond, Variety wrote that despite "admirable direction and excellent photography, the story ambles along to no definite denouement. Therefore it's not a strong candidate for the American market. Smart dialog and witticisms galore are not sufficient to sustain so elemental a love story." [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Tudor, Queen of France</span> Queen of France from 1514 to 1515

Mary Tudor was an English princess who was briefly Queen of France as the third wife of King Louis XII. Louis was more than 30 years her senior. Mary was the fifth child of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the youngest to survive infancy.

<i>Elizabeth R</i> TV miniseries

Elizabeth R is a BBC television drama serial of six 90-minute plays starring Glenda Jackson as Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was first broadcast on BBC2 from February to March 1971, through the ABC in Australia and broadcast in the United States on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. The series has been repeated several times, most recently from 15 March 2023, by BBC Four.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Katherine Grey</span> English noblewoman

Katherine Seymour, Countess of Hertford was a younger sister of Lady Jane Grey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley</span> English noble

Edward Sutton, 2nd Baron Dudley, was an English nobleman elected as Knight of the Garter (KG) in the beginning of King Henry VIII's reign. He was chamberlain to Princess Mary from 1525 to 1528.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lettice Knollys</span> English noblewoman and aristocrat

Lettice Knollys, Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester, was an English noblewoman and mother to the courtiers Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and Lady Penelope Rich. By her second marriage to Elizabeth I's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, she incurred the Queen's unrelenting displeasure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelope Blount, Countess of Devonshire</span> English noblewoman (1563–1607)

Penelope Rich, Lady Rich, later styled Penelope Blount was an English court office holder. She served as lady-in-waiting to the English queen Anne of Denmark. She was the sister of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and is traditionally thought to be the inspiration for "Stella" of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella sonnet sequence. She was married to Robert Rich, 3rd Baron Rich and had a public liaison with Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy, whom she married in an unlicensed ceremony following her divorce from Rich. She died in 1607.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk</span> English noblewoman

Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk, was an English noblewoman. She was the second child and eldest daughter of King Henry VIII's younger sister, Princess Mary, and Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. She was the mother of Lady Jane Grey, de facto Queen of England and Ireland for nine days, as well as Lady Katherine Grey and Lady Mary Grey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aubrey Beauclerk, 6th Duke of St Albans</span> English aristocrat and politician

Aubrey Beauclerk, 6th Duke of St Albans was an English aristocrat and politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penelope Dudley-Ward</span> English actress (1914–1982)

Penelope Ann Rachel, Lady Reed, known as Penelope Dudley-Ward, was an English actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy Reed (English actress)</span> English actress

Tracy Reed was an English actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freda Dudley Ward</span> English socialite (1894–1983)

Winifred May Mones, Marquesa de Casa Maury, commonly known by her first married name as Freda Dudley Ward, was an English socialite. She was best known for being a married paramour of Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VIII.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward</span> Fictional character

Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is a fictional character introduced in the British 1960s Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds, which was produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. The character also appears in the film sequels Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968), the 2004 live-action film Thunderbirds and the CGI remake series Thunderbirds Are Go. In the world of Thunderbirds, Penelope is employed by the secret organisation International Rescue as its London field agent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baron Grey of Powis</span>

The title Baron Grey of Powis (1482–1552) was created for the great-grandson of Joan Charleton, co-heiress and 6th Lady of Powis (Powys) and her husband, Sir John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville (1384–1421) after the death of Joan's father, Edward Charleton, 5th Baron Cherleton (1370–1421) left the title in abeyance.

<i>The Demi-Paradise</i> 1943 British film

The Demi-Paradise is a 1943 British comedy film made by Two Cities Films. It stars Laurence Olivier as a Soviet Russian inventor who travels to England to have his revolutionary propeller manufactured, and Penelope Dudley-Ward as the woman who falls in love with him. It was directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Anatole de Grunwald and Filippo Del Giudice from a screenplay by de Grunwald. The music score was by Nicholas Brodszky and the cinematography by Bernard Knowles. The film was shot at Denham Studios with sets designed by the art director Carmen Dillon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Diana Beauclerk</span> English noblewoman and artist

Lady Diana Beauclerk was an English noblewoman and celebrated artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgina Ward, Countess of Dudley</span> British noblewoman

Georgina Elizabeth Ward, Countess of Dudley was a British noblewoman and a noted beauty of the Victorian era.

<i>Born to Be Bad</i> (1950 film) 1950 film by Nicholas Ray

Born to Be Bad is a 1950 American film noir melodrama directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan and Zachary Scott. It features Fontaine as a manipulative young woman who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. It is based on the bestselling novel All Kneeling by Anne Parrish (1928).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maureen Swanson</span> British actress

Maureen Ward, Countess of Dudley, was a British actress. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Lady Dudley was the daughter of James Swanson. As Maureen Swanson, she featured in British pictures during the 1950s and retired from acting in 1961, following her marriage to Viscount Ednam.

<i>But the Flesh Is Weak</i> 1932 film

But the Flesh Is Weak is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Jack Conway and written by Ivor Novello based on his 1928 play The Truth Game. The film stars Robert Montgomery, Nora Gregor, Heather Thatcher, Edward Everett Horton, C. Aubrey Smith and Nils Asther. The film was released on April 9, 1932, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. But the Flesh Is Weak was remade in 1941 as Free and Easy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Lady of the Bedchamber</span> Highest ranking personal attendant on a queen or princess

In British Royal Households, First Lady of the Bedchamber is the title of the highest of the ladies of the bedchamber, those holding the official position of personal attendants on a queen or princess. The title had its equivalent in several European royal courts. The position is traditionally held by a female member of a noble family.

References

  1. "English without Tears". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  2. "English without Tears (1944) - Harold French - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  3. 1 2 "English Without Tears". Turner Classic Movies.
  4. An allusion to the iconic Fortnum & Mason provisioners.
  5. Townhouse
  6. mcFarlane, Brian (1997). An autobiography of British cinema : as told by the filmmakers and actors who made it. Metheun. p. 213.
  7. "Variety (August 1944)". archive.org.