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The material is later reworked in Friendly Persuasion, the theme on secluded communities is the same ("A bit of action is required now and then"). Lady Britannia fancies a new hat, "an average English middle-class family" can afford it plus a new convertible plus servants, the MGM view. The village ca. 1939 has its cozy hierarchy, the feudal holdover (Dame May Whitty) and the plebeian stationmaster (Henry Travers) mediated by the gallant housewife (Greer Garson). She and her husband (Walter Pidgeon) smile indulgently at the oldest son fresh off Oxford (Richard Ney), whose awareness of injustice is pacified by the aristocrat's granddaughter (Teresa Wright). "Mink coats and no manners! No wonder Germany's arming." Hollywood's morale-boosting machine, perfected by William Wyler and admired by Goebbels. Tradition is the bedrock, flower shows are as important as the island's immemorial roots and not to be trifled with by the Jerries. ("There will always be roses," the bell-ringer assures before a dissolve to a knight's tomb.) The father's volunteer patrol joins the flotilla down the river, the battleship's booming voice announces Dunkirk in the dark, a scene remembered by Fellini in both Amarcord and E la nave va. Order on the domestic front is maintained by the heroine, whose typical morning involves disarming an enemy fugitive in the kitchen without waking up the kids upstairs. Lewis Carroll and biscuits in the shelter, a night sky lit up by searchlights and explosions. "Fine barrage tonight, isn't it?" Bowler hat on the wooden saint, Hitler mustache on the travel poster. The vicar's interrupted sermon is picked up at the close, with a literalization of "Christian soldiers" and RAF angels glimpsed through the jagged screen of a bombed church roof. Boorman in Hope and Glory has the antidote. With Reginald Owen, Henry Wilcoxon, Brenda Forbes, Marie De Becker, Helmut Dantine, John Abbott, and Rhys Williams. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |