Spring and Port Wine **** (1970, James Mason, Diana Coupland, Susan George, Rodney Bewes, Hannah Gordon, Adrienne Posta, Arthur Lowe) – Classic Movie Review 6,322

The 1970 British kitchen sink drama film Spring and Port Wine is based on a hit stage play by Bill Naughton, and provides a grand role for James Mason as a North West England father who attempts to assert his authority in the household as his children grow up.

The successful, though now slightly faded English North Country play Spring and Port Wine is adapted for the screen by the author Bill Naughton as a very comfortable vehicle for Huddersfield (Yorkshire)-born James Mason in director Peter Hammond’s relishable 1970 British comedy. Spring and Port Wine was the first film shot at Elstree Studios after Bryan Forbes took over as boss.

Mason proves ideal as Rafe Crompton, giving an excellent performance as the strict head of working class family in Bolton, Lancashire [now Greater Manchester], who insists that his teenage daughter Hilda (Susan George) eat a meal she does not like (‘If you get the better of me lass, you’ll be the first in this house that has ‘). Rafe is a typically stern father of the mother and Daisy Crompton (Diana Coupland) is his equally typically lenient wife, who try to control their four children’s lives.

The well-observed comedy drama is very warm, genial and amiable, though director Hammond shows some strain and difficulty in making a movie out of it, and most of the performances are sketched in the broad brushstrokes of TV sitcom, unsurprisingly when you consider the cast – Diana Coupland (Bless This House) as Daisy Crompton, Rodney Bewes (The Likely Lads) as Harold Crompton, Arthur Lowe (Dad’s Army) as Mr Aspinall and Hannah Gordon (My Wife Next Door) as Florence Crompton.

But then, with these much-loved players, what is wrong with that? And now that so much time has gone by, it is lovely to see them all again, and it is a good tribute to the ones who have passed. In any case, the actors spring the characters to life and make them seem very real.

Frank Windsor, Avril Elgar and Adrienne Posta play the Cromptons’ next-door neighbours, the Duckworths. Also in the cast are Marjorie Rhodes, Bernard Bresslaw, Len Jones, Keith Buckley, Bernard Smidowicz, Christopher Timothy, Joseph Greig, Ken Parry, Jack Howarth, Bryan Mosley, Bryan Pringle, Sandra Downs and John Sharp.

Actors apart, in another sense the film is also a valuable time capsule. Partly filmed in Bolton in 1969, when many of the old industrial buildings remained, it shows large chimneys, street scenes and shots of the town now long gone. Filmed as St Peters Way was being built, it captures an industrial town in transformation. The family house is 51 Grisdale Road, Bolton.

It began as a BBC radio play My Flesh, My Blood, broadcast on 17 August 1957. A BBC TV version was broadcast in April 1958 and in October 1959 there was a stage adaptation at the Bolton Hippodrome. The play was first produced as Spring and Port Wine in Birmingham before opening at London’s Mermaid Theatre in November 1965, with Alfred Marks (as Rafe), Ruth Dunning (as Daisy) and John Alderton (as Harold). In January 1966, it transferred to the Apollo Theatre in London’s West End, subsequently moving to the New Theatre in July 1967 and then St Martin’s Theatre in June 1968. It had a West End run of 1,236 performances.

Michael Medwin, who produced the play, again produces the film (with Roy Baird) for Memorial Enterprises, with two-thirds of the budget provided by Anglo-EMI, Nat Cohen’s subsidiary of EMI Films. It is shot by Norman Warwick and scored by Douglas Gamley.

Rodney Bewes plays Harold Crompton.

Chubby-cheeked British comedy actor Rodney Bewes (27 November 1937 – 21 November 2017) plays Harold Crompton.

The cast are James Mason as Rafe Crompton, Diana Coupland as Daisy Crompton, Susan George as Hilda Crompton, Rodney Bewes as Harold Crompton, Hannah Gordon as Florence Crompton, Len Jones as Wilfred Crompton, Keith Buckley as Arthur Gasket, Avril Elgar as Betsy-Jane Duckworth, Adrienne Posta as Betty Duckworth, Frank Windsor as Ned Duckworth, Arthur Lowe as Mr. Aspinall, Marjorie Rhodes as Mrs. Gasket, Bernard Bresslaw as Lorry Driver, Joseph Greig as Allan (TV man), Christopher Timothy as Joe (TV man), Ken Parry as Pawnbroker, Reg Green, Jack Howarth, Bryan Pringle and John Sharp as Bowlers, and Bernard Smidowicz as Van Driver.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,322

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