March 25

I have seen all but one of the films that TCM is showing for David Lean’s birthday, The Happy Breed. The opening title card says it all “this is a story of a London family from 1919 to 1939”. Robert Newton & Celia Johnson play a married couple who move to a new house in suburban London in 1919 with the whole family. The opening scene is Thames sweeping to the right over London, to the suburbs, into an empty house to the front door where Robert comes in preceding his family. It is a history of England told through one family. The story goes through the returning soldiers from WWI, British Exposition, transportation strikes, talking pictures, Charleston dance contests, marriages, births, deaths, friendships, rise of fascism, the Kings death, Chamberlain and the threat of war in Europe. The story ends as the family and Robert leave the house, the camera starts at the closed door, goes through the house, to the outside in the suburb then to London and the Thames.