1940's England

[V.C. Brunswick]

Eric and Ernie (2011)
Biopic about the early years of British comedy team Morecambe & Wise spanning a period from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. It does have some 1940s scenes including this one of when they first met.

[video=youtube;Qg1hbrLwiFw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg1hbrLwiFw[/video]

 

[Mr. Godfrey]

Who could forget my little hamlet of 'Bramley End'? a classic English village and tale.

Went the day well?

[video=youtube_share;oJ9Xm9st4Sg]http://youtu.be/oJ9Xm9st4Sg[/video]

 

[Mr. Godfrey]

Eric and Ernie (2011)
Biopic about the early years of British comedy team Morecambe & Wise spanning a period from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. It does have some 1940s scenes including this one of when they first met.

[video=youtube;Qg1hbrLwiFw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg1hbrLwiFw[/video]

Good call, an excellent drama, the house setting for Eric was superb.

 

[skyvue]

David Lean's This Happy Breed, which was based on a play by Noel Coward, immediately came to mind for me. Roughly spanning the period from World War I to World War II, it's the story of a working-class London (or the suburbs, perhaps?) family, and it is sheer delight. I heartily recommend it.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Good call, an excellent drama, the house setting for Eric was superb.

Interestingly, Eric's actual boyhood home in Morecambe is still standing. It's around the corner from the site of Christie Park, the former home of Morecambe FC. The back garden adjoined one of the stands.

 

[St. Louis]

I agree that the most recent version of 39 steps is very good, but it's so ... sad. I won't say more: don't want to spoil things.

I loved Housewife, 49 -- a quiet and little known film, beautifully written and very uplifting. There are some scenes in Island At War, Wish Me Luck, and Enemy at the Door that are great for that "England in the Forties" feeling, though I wouldn't necessarily say they're all of the same quality.

 

[dhermann1]

Passport to Pimlico, definitely!

 

[Edward]

Does Mrs. Miniver count even though it was filmed in America?

Greer Garson won the Oscar for her role in that. I recall reading that hers was the longest acceptance speech in Oscar history: Guinness credit her with five minutes and thirty seconds, at which point the Academy folks cut her off.

It's not "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" is it? That was horrible.

That was tremendous fun. Made in 1971, though, and by Disney, so the animated sequences with talking animals are more believable than the depiction of wartime England.

Wasn't there a remake of that film?

The Hollywood film was actually a redux of a TV production - a six part miniseries, which - if memory serves - was first screened on the BBC. It came out on DVD years later - around the time the remake was in the cinema, as i the way of these things.

Thanks Doc. I'll have to look out for that. I read recently that the Ealing Studios wardrobe dept/costumes etc (no doubt including that jacket) were all taken over by the BBC when it bought the Ealing studio complex in the 1950s. I wonder if they are still lurking somewhere?

I wonder if BBC Wardrobe is still BBC, or if it has been hived off completely. When I last did a couple of TV spots for BBC kids' TV (about eight or nine years ago), they were still part of the BBC, but run independently and money changed hands between the show I was on and the Wardrobe Dept as if they were dealing with Angels.

Oh yes, if we are talking tweed, then 'the 39 steps' with Kenneth Moore although all four versions are excellent along with play in the west end.:eusa_clap

The West ENd show is a very different beast, but tremendous fun.

Eric and Ernie (2011)
Biopic about the early years of British comedy team Morecambe & Wise spanning a period from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. It does have some 1940s scenes including this one of when they first met.

[video=youtube;Qg1hbrLwiFw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg1hbrLwiFw[/video]

A friend of mine wasan extra in that - she played one of the burlesque girls in a Soho club scene.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Brighton Rock is one of the best forties films, but the clothes are crap though. They mostly were in the real forties Britain which was on its back, and owed much more than it had after cashing everything in to survive in the war.

 

[Two Types]

Brighton Rock is one of the best forties films, but the clothes are crap though.

That's not my definition of crap:

 

[Capesofwrath]

Pretty well worn and mostly fitted like sacks of shit when you saw them in motion in the picture though. With the exception of the first Dr Who's outfit.

The one in the wide boy suit ain't my definition of well turned out by any stretch. But I can remember people who stilled dressed like that from when I was a kid.

 

[majormajor]

The one in the wide boy suit ain't my definition of well turned out by any stretch.

The "one in the wide boy suit" is supposed to look like that - he's a "wide boy"........Hello...... Wake up at the back.....:eusa_doh::eusa_doh::eusa_doh:

 

[Capesofwrath]

The "one in the wide boy suit" is supposed to look like that - he's a "wide boy"........Hello...... Wake up at the back.....:eusa_doh::eusa_doh::eusa_doh:

Er. I did know that. If you read back a page you'll see that I was replying to someone who seemed to think it was a good style.

Stay awake major.

 

[Two Types]

"I was replying to someone who seemed to think it was a good style."

I'm not sure that I was arguing that it was 'good style', simply that it wasn't 'crap'. And, most importantly, really flash British suits (with all the 'bells and whistles') are damn rare. There are plenty of collectors/enthusiasts who have rarely seen, let alone been able to purchase, British belt back suits/jackets of the period. If any of those suits (or suits in similar styles) came up for sale now there would be plenty to people clamouring to get their hands on them - and plenty of others who would be jealous. The suit worn by Attenborough as Pinkie may be rather flash but it is also iconic. I would personally be reticent about wearing suits in that style but one has to appreciate the history behind them.
The Fedora Lounge is full of people who happily wear those suits.

 

[Capesofwrath]

Fair enough, and I'm not knocking the style at all. Apart from the spiv. Just that most people in the UK then with the exception of the rich were very down at heel, as was the whole country.

If you remember Pinkie's gang lived in a shithole and were probably less than clean.

Blithe Spirit by contrast showed the kind of suits which the well dressed wealthy wore then. Rex Harrison's tweeds are really very nice indeed. The picture is a fantasy of course; and the life style of the characters is too, in a time when rationing was still in place.

 

[Two Types]

I agree that, in general, the british public were 'down-at-heel' in the 1940s. That said, there was a massive input of new suits onto the scene with the widespread issue of demob suits as men came out of the forces. In many cases men received their first ever suit courtesy of the scheme.

 

[C44Antelope]

Passport to Pimlico, definitely!

Wasn't that the last time Charters and Caldicott? Well, under different names.

 

[Mr. Godfrey]

Tawny Pipit (1944)

Jimmy Bancroft, a fighter pilot, who is recovering from injuries sustained during the Battle of Britain, and his nurse Hazel Broome, come across a pair of rare birds nestling in a field. After a run in with the army, and a couple of thieves, they, with the cooperation of the village people and the Ornithology Society, help the eggs to hatch. A wonderful look at life in a small village, during World War II.

I have only watched this film twice but I recall it to be an excellent film.

[video=youtube_share;71gHvM7Lf-k]http://youtu.be/71gHvM7Lf-k[/video]

 

[W-D Forties]

Not your usual 'fillums' but we like to spend rainy afternoons in our house watching some of the excellent GPO films of the 30's and 40's. They are a brilliant slice of Britain of the period.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_U3yF3vFYo

The Fairy Of The Phone is great too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDStLml4mYA

I'd second any of the Ealing films and Went The Day Well? is great.

 

[MissNathalieVintage]

I was a male war bride.