''English Without Tears'' is a 1944 British
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film directed by
Harold French
Harold French (23 April 1897 – 19 October 1997) was an English film director, screenwriter and actor.
Biography
After training at the Italia Conti School, he made his acting debut age 12, in a production of ''The Winter's Tale''. As an ...
and starring
Michael Wilding
Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...
,
Penelope Dudley-Ward
Penelope Ann Rachel, Lady Reed (born Penelope Anne Rachel Dudley Ward; 4 August 1914 – 21 January 1982), known as Penelope Dudley-Ward, was an English actress.
Born in London, she was the elder daughter of William Dudley Ward and the lead ...
and
Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Glob ...
. It was released in the U.S. under the title ''Her Man Gilbey'', as a reference to the classic
Screwball comedy
Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...
, ''
My Man Godfrey'' (1936).
[
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
The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...
. 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 carriage takes a basket of quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy.
Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...
to the tradesman's entrance of Beauclerk
Beauclerk or Beauclerc (pronounced ''boh-clair'') is an English surname, from Anglo-Norman meaning "fine scholar". It is also the family name of the Duke of St Albans.
Notable people with the surname include:
* Henry I of England (–1135), cal ...
House. An elaborate process brings the birds to the dinner plates of Lady Christabel Beauclerk (Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, television and film.
She came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's ''Blithe Spirit'', and Oscar ...
) and her nephew, Sir Cosmo Brandon (Roland Culver
Roland Joseph Culver, (31 August 1900 – 1 March 1984) was an English stage, film, and television actor.
Life and career
After Highgate School, he joined the Royal Air Force and served as a pilot from 1918 to 1919. After considering other c ...
). a British delegate to the League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
in Geneva
, neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier
, website = https://www.geneve.ch/
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...
. 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
Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...
) to join them in Geneva, where she will propose sanctuaries for British birds. The xenophobic
Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
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
Penelope Ann Rachel, Lady Reed (born Penelope Anne Rachel Dudley Ward; 4 August 1914 – 21 January 1982), known as Penelope Dudley-Ward, was an English actress.
Born in London, she was the elder daughter of William Dudley Ward and the lead ...
), 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
Albert Lieven (born Albert Fritz Liévin; 22 June 1906 – 22 December 1971) was a German actor.
Early life
Lieven was born in Hohenstein, East Prussia (Olszynek, Poland). His father was the head physician of the Tuberculosis sanatorium Ho ...
) and French romantic novelist François de Freycinet ( Claude Dauphin). The session and Norwegian interpreter Brigid Knudsen's (Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Glob ...
) 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
Row or ROW may refer to:
Exercise
*Rowing, or a form of aquatic movement using oars
*Row (weight-lifting), a form of weight-lifting exercise
Math
*Row vector, a 1 × ''n'' matrix in linear algebra.
*Row (database), a single, implicitly structured ...
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
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
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
The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...
. 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
* Michael Wilding
Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding (23 July 1912 – 8 July 1979) was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, '' Under Capric ...
as Tom Gilbey
* Penelope Dudley-Ward
Penelope Ann Rachel, Lady Reed (born Penelope Anne Rachel Dudley Ward; 4 August 1914 – 21 January 1982), known as Penelope Dudley-Ward, was an English actress.
Born in London, she was the elder daughter of William Dudley Ward and the lead ...
as Joan Heseltine
* Lilli Palmer
Lilli Palmer (; born Lilli Marie Peiser; 24 May 1914 – 27 January 1986) was a German actress and writer. After beginning her career in British films in the 1930s, she would later transition to major Hollywood productions, earning a Golden Glob ...
as Brigid Knudsen
* Claude Dauphin as François de Freycinet
* Albert Lieven
Albert Lieven (born Albert Fritz Liévin; 22 June 1906 – 22 December 1971) was a German actor.
Early life
Lieven was born in Hohenstein, East Prussia (Olszynek, Poland). His father was the head physician of the Tuberculosis sanatorium Ho ...
as Felix Dembowski
* Peggy Cummins as Bobbie Heseltine
* Margaret Rutherford
Dame Margaret Taylor Rutherford, (11 May 1892 – 22 May 1972) was an English actress of stage, television and film.
She came to national attention following World War II in the film adaptations of Noël Coward's ''Blithe Spirit'', and Oscar ...
as Lady Christabel Beauclerk
* Martin Miller Martin Miller may refer to:
*Martin Miller (actor) (1899–1969), Czech actor
*Martin Miller (cricketer, born 1940), English cricketer
*Martin Miller (cricketer, born 1972), English cricketer
*Martin Miller (footballer) (born 1997), Estonian footbal ...
as Schmidt
* Roland Culver
Roland Joseph Culver, (31 August 1900 – 1 March 1984) was an English stage, film, and television actor.
Life and career
After Highgate School, he joined the Royal Air Force and served as a pilot from 1918 to 1919. After considering other c ...
as Sir Cosmo Brandon
* Paul Demel
Paul Demel (4 May 1903 – 31 August 1951) was an actor born in Brno, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He is most notable for his cameo appearances in films, particularly the British Ealing comedies ''Hue and Cry'' (1947), ''Passport to ...
as M. Saladoff
* Beryl Measor
Beryl Measor (22 April 1908 – 8 February 1965) was a British actress. She created roles in plays by Noël Coward and Terence Rattigan. In addition to her stage career she broadcast frequently on BBC radio and television, and appeared in severa ...
as Miss Faljambe
* Guy Middleton
Guy Middleton Powell (14 December 1906 – 30 July 1973), better known as Guy Middleton, was an English film character actor.
Biography
Guy Middleton was born in Hove, Sussex, and originally worked in the London Stock Exchange, before tu ...
as Captain Standish
* Esma Cannon
Esma Ellen Charlotte Littmann (née Cannon) (27 December 1905 – 18 October 1972), credited as Esme or Esma Cannon, was a diminutive () Australian-born character actress and comedian, who moved to Britain in the early 1930s. Although she freque ...
as Queenie
* Ivor Barnard
Ivor Barnard (13 June 1887 – 30 June 1953) was an English stage, radio and film actor. He was an original member of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, where he was a notable Shylock and Caliban. He was the original Water Rat in the first L ...
as Mr. Quiel
* Paul Bonifas
Paul Bonifas (3 June 1902 – 9 November 1975) was a French actor, born in Paris.
Career
In the 1920s, while working for the French customs service, Bonifas took classes in acting at the Conservatoire de Paris in his spare time. He left wit ...
as Monsieur Rolland
* Richard Turner as Delivery Man
* Judith Furse
Judith Furse (4 March 1912 – 29 August 1974) was an English actress.
Career
A member of the Furse family, her father was Lieutenant-General Sir William Furse and mother
Jean Adelaide Furse. Her brother, Roger, became a stage designer and ...
as Elise Batter-Jones
* André Randall
André Randall (9 December 1892 – 4 July 1974) was a French screen actor. He was born André Ayaïs in Bordeaux and died at Sainte-Foy-la-Grande.
Filmography
*1919: '' The Odds Against Her'' (directed by Alexander Butler)
*1931: '' Mistigri'' ...
as Dutch Officer
* Gerard Heinz
Gerard Heinz (born Gerhard Hinze; 2 January 1904 – 20 November 1972) was a German actor.
Heinz was born in Hamburg, Germany and later moved to Britain, where he changed his name. He appeared in almost 60 films (including ''Caravan''), and a n ...
as Polish Officer
Critical reception
In contemporary reviews, ''The Glasgow Herald
''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...
'' felt the film suffered in comparison to Rattigan and de Grunwald's previous success, ''French Without Tears
''French Without Tears'' is a comic play written by a 25-year-old Terence Rattigan in 1936.
Setting
It takes place in a cram school for adults needing to acquire French for business reasons. Scattered throughout are Franglais phrases and sch ...
'', and regretted the absence of director Anthony Asquith
Anthony William Landon Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among oth ...
'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"; Across the pond, ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' 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."
References
External links
*
Review of film
at Variety
{{Terence Rattigan
1944 films
1944 romantic comedy films
British black-and-white films
British romantic comedy films
1940s English-language films
Films directed by Harold French
Films produced by Anatole de Grunwald
Films with screenplays by Terence Rattigan
Films with screenplays by Anatole de Grunwald
Two Cities Films films
British World War II films
Films set in 1942
Films set in London
Films set in Geneva
Domestic workers in films
1940s British films