comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...
produced by
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever s ...
and directed by
Charles Frend
Charles Herbert Frend (21 November 1909, Pulborough, Sussex – 8 January 1977, London) was an English film director and editor, best known for his films produced at Ealing Studios. He began directing in the early 1940s and is known for such ...
. The film was produced by
Michael Balcon
Sir Michael Elias Balcon (19 May 1896 – 17 October 1977) was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in West London from 1938 to 1955. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film ...
from a screenplay by
T. E. B. Clarke
Thomas Ernest Bennett "Tibby" Clarke, OBE (7 June 1907 – 11 February 1989) was a film screenwriter who wrote several of the Ealing Studios comedies.
Clarke's scripts always feature careful logical development from a slightly absurd premise ...
, with cinematography by
Roy Kellino
Roy Kellino (born Philip Roy Gislingham; 22 April 1912 – 18 November 1956) was an English film director, film producer, producer and cinematographer.
Biography
He was born Philip Roy Gislingham in Lambeth, South London, the son of the silent-e ...
.
Plot
The film is set at the onset and first months of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, between March 1939 and June 1940, in a small fishing port in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, whose inhabitants have an historic, but largely benign, rivalry with their counterparts from a port over the Channel in
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
in northern France, whose fishing boats fish the same grounds - in this case looking for crabs. Legally the French may not fish within a
three-mile limit
The three-mile limit refers to a traditional and now largely obsolete conception of the international law of the seas which defined a country's territorial waters, for the purposes of trade regulation and exclusivity, as extending as far as the r ...
of the British coast, and vice versa, and breaches of this rule are the cause of frequent spats between the two countries. In this instance, hot-headed Cornish harbour-master Nat Pomeroy confronts Lanec Florrie, an equally redoubtable widow in charge of an otherwise male crew, from a Breton port. Beneath all the bluster and posturing however, there is a mutual understanding and respect between the two communities.
Widower Nat's daughter, Sue Pomeroy, has been friends since childhood with local boy Bob Tremayne, and their eventual marriage has been taken as a foregone conclusion. During a visit by the Cornish contingent to Brittany a wrestling match is arranged between Bob and Lanec's son Yan, during which Yan breaks a bone, to the concern of Sue. Yan is attracted to Sue and begins actively to woo her, with great success. Sue is torn between her own attraction to Yan and her unspoken commitment to Bob, a situation which leads to increased friction between the two communities. However, when war-related danger ensues, both sides realise that their unity in common cause against the mutual German enemy, and that it is more important than petty squabbles. Bob is called up to serve in the British navy, and in a showdown conversation with Yan before he leaves, the two agree that Sue must be allowed to follow her own heart.
Yan comes to Cornwall to also serve in war duties.
With most men absent, a loose
sea mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ve ...
drifts into the Cornish harbour and Lanec bravely mans a ship to net it and tow it out, making her a local hero and easing the tensions. She eventually pushes Sue and Yan to marry, which they do without Pomeroy's consent.
Cast
*
Tom Walls
Thomas Kirby Walls (18 February 1883 – 27 November 1949) was an English stage and film actor, producer and director, best known for presenting and co-starring in the Aldwych farces in the 1920s and for starring in and directing the film adapt ...
as Nat Pomeroy
*
Patricia Roc
Patricia Roc (born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold; 7 June 1915 – 30 December 2003) was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as ''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' (1945) and ''The Wicked Lady'' (1945), though she only m ...
as Sue Pomeroy
*
Françoise Rosay
Françoise Rosay (; born Françoise Bandy de Nalèche; 19 April 1891 – 28 March 1974) was a French opera singer, diseuse,''Design'', Volume 9 1965 p. 24 and actress who enjoyed a film career of over sixty years and who became a legendary figure ...
as Lanec Florrie
*
Paul Dupuis
Paul Dupuis (August 11, 1913 – January 23, 1976) was a French Canadian film actor who was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and who performed in British films during the late 1940s. The roles he played were mainly as the romantic leading man. ...
as Yan Kervarec
*
Ralph Michael
Ralph Michael (26 September 1907 – 9 November 1994) was an English actor. He was born as Ralph Champion Shotter in London. His film appearances included ''Dead of Night'', ''A Night to Remember (1958 film), A Night to Remember'', ''Children ...
as Bob Tremayne
*
Arthur Hambling
Arthur Hambling (14 March 1888 – 6 December 1952) was a British actor, on stage from 1912, and best known for appearances in the films ''Henry V'' (1944) and ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' (1951). In 1939 he appeared in the West End in N.C. Hunter ...
as Steven Matthews
*
James Harcourt
James Harcourt (20 April 187318 February 1951) was an English character actor.
Harcourt was born in Headingley, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. He started work as a cabinet maker, and drifted into amateur dramatics. He appeared as a stage act ...
as Joe Pender
*
Grace Arnold
Grace Arnold (19 September 1894 – 26 February 1979) was an English actress.
Selected filmography
* ''Guilt'' (1931)
* ''Men Without Honour'' (1939) - Mrs. Hardy
* ''Crimes at the Dark House'' (1940) - Maid (uncredited)
* ''Spare a Copper'' ( ...
as Mrs. Matthews
*
Beatrice Varley
Beatrice Evelyn Varley (11 July 1896 – 4 July 1964) was an English actress who appeared in television and film roles between 1936 and 1964. She made her screen debut in the 1936 film ''Tomorrow We Live'' and began to portray a variety of ch ...
as Mrs. Tremayne
*
Drusilla Wills
Drusilla Wills (14 November 18846 August 1951) was a British stage and film actress. After making her stage debut in 1902, she played character roles in many films, including as a jury member in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Murder!'' (1930).
Selected f ...
as Miss Bennett
*
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 June Matthews
*
Frederick Piper
Frederick Piper (23 September 1902 – 22 September 1979) was an English actor of stage and screen who appeared in over 80 films and many television productions in a career spanning over 40 years. Piper studied drama under Elsie Fogerty at the ...
as Zacky Penrose
* Richard George as Charlie West
*
Bill Blewitt
Bill Blewitt was a Cornish postman 'discovered' by film-maker Harry Watt and cast in his 1936 film '' The Saving of Bill Blewitt''. The documentary was about the Post Office Savings Bank and featured Blewitt and the villagers of Mousehole in C ...