source: Background

Moviecut—Background

Background

Valerie Hobson and Philip Friend have been bickering away for some years.He treats her much the way he would treat a hostile witness in court.Norman Woodland is a comforting shoulder who is in love with Hobson.Things come to a head one evening when Friend leaves home.They decide to divorce.They have three children who all take it differently.However the son takes it very badly and eventually shoots Woodland with intent to kill him.As a result Hobson and Friend decide to give their marriage another chance,though it is clear that they are only doing this for the sake of the children.Difficult to know how they are supposed to be happy in an unhappy household.Good performances by all the child actors.Both Mandy Miller and Jeanette Scott would go on to greater things.

Valerie Hobson's marriage to barrister Phillip Friend looks fine on the surface, bu it has been crumbling for years. Finally, they decide to divorce. Miss Hobson agrees to marry family friend Norman Wooland. The children don't like it. It's an intelligent movie about adults behaving like adults, and children misinterpretting everything. They see the effects on them, on their home, and react in a manner the adults consider bizarre. It's very nicely written and acted, from the adults to the children, to Lily Kann as Miss Hobson's longtime servant. It offers an honest view of the state of marriage and divorce in 1950s England.