David Lean's affectionate family portrait of a working-class London family, right from its establishing panoramic shot of the city panning all the way down and into the no doubt two-up two-down marital household of Robert Newton and Celia Johnson, affords the viewer a near fly-on-the-wall insight into everyday life between the wars. The daily lives of the couple and their family and neighbours are told in a realistic, near-documentary manner, the more so by the use of full-colour photograpy, colloquial, vernacular dialogue and easily recognisable characters and familial tensions against the backdrop of significant events in Britain at the time, such as the National Strike of 1924, the death of King George V, although oddly not the abdication of Edward VII and the false hope that followed Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's "Peace in our Time" Munich declaration as the prelude to the Second World War.
Look in any gift store today, almost everywhere in Britain and you'll see a Union Jack mug, plate, towel or even T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On" which pretty much sums up the underlying theme of the movie.
Newton and Johnson are the ordinary, average couple who share their house with their three soon-to-be-adult children and Johnson's whingeing old mother, who's forever bickering with their live-in widowed sister-in-law. Next door lives Newton's war-time drinking buddy played by Stanley Holloway while John Mills is also on hand as the young suitor to the older daughter, the rebellious Queenie, played by Kay Walsh.
Lean clearly has sympathy for the working-class he's depicting but at does at least show some contrary viewpoints to the norm with the other, more conventional daughter Vi's boyfriend and later husband spouting pro-Communist invective reflecting the Red Scare just after the end of the First World War and even a public Blackshirt rally by Oswald Mosley's fascist party in the early 30's. Such events as these and the afore-mentioned great strike of 1924 aren't however covered in any kind of detail, in fact they serve as little more than clues as to the passing of time.
The beating heart of the film is Celia Johnson's matriarchal figure. She espouses earthy common sense throughout but even her patience reaches its breaking point when her oldest daughter runs off with a married man, oh the shame of it! Newton puts in a doughty performance as the straight-arrow husband and interacts well not only wirh Johnson but slso Holloway.as "'im next door".
Perhaps the film lacks a little dramatic tension as it flits from episode to episode but there's no denying the quality of the acting, writing, cinematography and direction of this worthy and entertaining feature, which is worth viewing as much for its historical encapsulation of Britain between the wars as for its cinematic quality.
Look in any gift store today, almost everywhere in Britain and you'll see a Union Jack mug, plate, towel or even T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On" which pretty much sums up the underlying theme of the movie.
Newton and Johnson are the ordinary, average couple who share their house with their three soon-to-be-adult children and Johnson's whingeing old mother, who's forever bickering with their live-in widowed sister-in-law. Next door lives Newton's war-time drinking buddy played by Stanley Holloway while John Mills is also on hand as the young suitor to the older daughter, the rebellious Queenie, played by Kay Walsh.
Lean clearly has sympathy for the working-class he's depicting but at does at least show some contrary viewpoints to the norm with the other, more conventional daughter Vi's boyfriend and later husband spouting pro-Communist invective reflecting the Red Scare just after the end of the First World War and even a public Blackshirt rally by Oswald Mosley's fascist party in the early 30's. Such events as these and the afore-mentioned great strike of 1924 aren't however covered in any kind of detail, in fact they serve as little more than clues as to the passing of time.
The beating heart of the film is Celia Johnson's matriarchal figure. She espouses earthy common sense throughout but even her patience reaches its breaking point when her oldest daughter runs off with a married man, oh the shame of it! Newton puts in a doughty performance as the straight-arrow husband and interacts well not only wirh Johnson but slso Holloway.as "'im next door".
Perhaps the film lacks a little dramatic tension as it flits from episode to episode but there's no denying the quality of the acting, writing, cinematography and direction of this worthy and entertaining feature, which is worth viewing as much for its historical encapsulation of Britain between the wars as for its cinematic quality.