English Without Tears **** (1944, Michael Wilding, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Lilli Palmer, Margaret Rutherford) – Classic Movie Review 11,846

Director Harold French’s 1944 British romantic comedy film English without Tears [Her Man Gilbey] stars Michael Wilding, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Lilli Palmer and Margaret Rutherford, along with Albert Lieven, Claude Dauphin, Roland Culver, Guy Middleton, Felix Aylmer and Peggy Cummins.

So how were the British upper crust getting on during World War Two? Beauclerk House, the home of eccentric duchess Lady Christabel Beauclerk (Margaret Rutherford), a fanatical bird expert, has become a home for allied officers Felix Dembowski and François de Freycinet (Lieven, Dauphin) who are chasing after young Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) woman Joan Heseltine (Penelope Dudley-Ward). The main story follows a romance between the young English aristocrat and her family’s butler Gilbey (Michael Wilding), who becomes an officer of the Royal Army Service Corps.

A hand-picked cast, playing charismatically, do extremely well with the convoluted but mostly amusing piece, with poignant stuff about the League of Nations in Switzerland, where Lady Beauclerk (Rutherford) goes with her butler Gilbey (Wilding) to campaign on behalf of migratory birds.

It is written by Terence Rattigan and the film’s producer Anatole de Grunwald.

British audiences recognised the joke on the title of Rattigan’s famous play and film French without Tears, but the title was changed in the US to Her Man Gilbey, a reference to the classic screwball comedy, My Man Godfrey (1936).

Penelope Dudley-Ward in 1948.

It is the final film role for Penelope Dudley-Ward, who announced her retirement from the screen after her second marriage to film director Carol Reed on 24 January 1948. Her mother was leading socialite Freda Dudley Ward, long-time mistress of the Prince of Wales, future King Edward VIII.

The cast are Michael Wilding as Tom Gilbey, Penelope Dudley-Ward as Joan Heseltine, Lilli Palmer as Brigid Knudsen, Claude Dauphin as François de Freycinet, Albert Lieven as Felix Dembowski, Peggy Cummins as Bobbie Heseltine, Margaret Rutherford as Lady Christabel Beauclerk, Martin Miller as Schmidt, Roland Culver as Sir Cosmo Brandon, Paul Demel as M. Saladoff, Beryl Measor as Miss Faljambe, Guy Middleton as Captain Standish, Esma Cannon as Queenie, Ivor Barnard as Mr. Quiel, Paul Bonifas as Monsieur Rolland, Richard Turner as Delivery Man, Judith Furse as Elise Batter-Jones, André Randall as Dutch Officer, Gerard Heinz as Polish Officer, Louise Lord, Joan Misseldine, Irene Handl, Frederick Richter, Anthony Holles, David Keir, Beryl Laverick, Primula Rollo, Heather Boys, Vida Hope, Margaret McGrath, and Patricia Owens.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,846

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