This British Technicolor domestic drama from Eagle-Lion and director David Lean charts 20 years in the life of the Gibbons family, from 1919 to 1939. Husband Frank (Robert Newton) has just returned from fighting in WW1, and he and his wife Ethel (Celia Johnson) are moving into a new home in a crowded working class neighborhood. We follow them as they have children, raise them, and deal with the various ups and downs of family life, all leading up to the outbreak of WW2. Also featuring John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Holloway, Eileen Erskine, John Blythe, Amy Veness, Alison Leggatt, and the voice of Laurence Olivier.

Based on a play by Noel Coward, this bears some thematic similarities to 1933's Cavalcade. This is more accessible though, and certainly much better made. Technically the movie is a marvel, with perhaps the best looking color cinematography, courtesy of Ronald Neame, up to this point in film. Lean's direction is also very admirable, with interesting and innovative camera movement. There's one truly outstanding scene wherein a person who has bad news to share exits out of the back door into a garden to relay the message, only the camera stays inside the house, moving a bit, looking out into the backyard but not seeing the news being delivered, all the while loud, upbeat music is blaring from a radio. It's a shattering scene that depicts the often banal setting for life-changing developments. Unfortunately I found much of the rest of the movie uninvolving. The acting is good, very natural and played in the medium to low register. I just couldn't bring myself to get emotionally connected with much of it.

An outstanding David Lean film examining England between the World Wars. It deals with the Gibbons family and their lives during this tumultuous time.

Robert Newton and Celia Johnson are absolutely fabulous as the couple with 3 children. A stellar supporting cast enables this picture to be even better. We experience happiness, tragedy, the Charleston, general strikes hitting an endearing British people.

We see a family in crisis. The mother is quite a character, and even with her morbid ways, we can chuckle as this is what occurs as our seniors get older. A strong family structure committed to family values is terribly hurt by the actions of the youngest daughter, but in life there is redemption, and that is admirably shown in this film.

Life goes on. The question of what happens when we leave our homes and new occupants come in, is there some sort of link between the old and new? This is a fascinating question and this period piece, shot in bright textures, well answers this. Yes, we keep up that stiff upper lip.

This film is set between the wars and spans roughly 20 years. WWI has just ended when the film begins. The man of the house is back from fighting and the family is moving into a new home. Soon, you start to realize that this 'typical' English family is darned annoying! Now I know this is considered to a very good film and has a very respectable overall score, but listening to the grandmother and aunt prattle on and on and on throughout the film grated on me--and was hoping that someone would toss them out or hit them! And, as the teenagers grew into adulthood, they, too, often became annoying brats. And it made me wonder...was the supposed to be a film to bolster the spirit of the Brits or make you sympathize for the enemy?! After all, aside from the nice but ineffectual mother and father, they were a pack of jerks! And, as the film inexorably moves through the next decades, some of the folks don't improve--the granny and aunt are STILL obnoxious. The idiot kids (especially the one daughter) eventually turn things around...but it sure takes too much of the film! Heck, I could see the Axis using this film to show the German people to persuade them how weak and annoying the Brits were (which they are NOT--but the film sure makes it seem that way).

While I KNOW that David Lean is one of the gods in the film world, I really think this one is a huge disappointment due to characters who seem more like broad caricatures instead of real folks and a story that bounces through so many years that you rarely feel connected to the characters. I think that Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons (the parents) were wonderfully written and the idea of a story of the working class on the outbreak of WWII is great--but something is missing from this one. Episodic and tough to believe at times, you don't expect a Lean film (and his first color one to boot) to be this mediocre.