Theresa Wright's intermittant British accent was weak,particularly for an Academy Award winning performance. Ditto Richard Ney's (he was born in L.A.).
Even the actor who played little Toby was American born. Even
Pidgeon, a Canadian, really doesn't, have a great British accentbut he can get away with it.
For me, the accents detracted from the film.
.
From the minute it started (with the fake double-decker bus trundling down a California back lot, its door on the wrong side) I realised this was an American production glossed over with Hollywood sheen (those HATS!).
So many details were wrong (like the oldest son's tan, for instance) and the ridiculous accents destroyed any attempt at credibility (at one point the stationmaster sounds like he's from the West Country).
This Happy Breed went on to be far more effective in portraying the British home front.
Yeah, Gone With the Wind was absolutely RUINED by those terrible southern accents done by Vivian Leigh and Leslie Howard too.
I though Jezebel was MUCH more effective at portraying the Southern home front.
jayhawk18: You didn't realize this was an American film until it started? What did you think it was?
I'm not particularly a defender of this film, which represents the epitome of Hollywood's fairy-tale Britain of a good-natured and prosperous society, with a haughty but down-to-Earth aristocracy and a kindly, simple, loyal working class, with fake accents to match. So yes, it's mostly a lie, but in its day this film was not only a huge hit in America but with British audiences too. They recognized its many flaws, cliches and overall unreality, but still liked it as an idealized image of their country's spirit and best qualities. It served its purpose as a morale-booster at the time. Other Allied countries, including the United States, were similarly depicted in such flattering terms in other wartime films.
I disagree that This Happy Breed was more effective in portraying the British home front. Not because it was less true to real British life -- obviously as a British film it was much more realistic in that respect. But though made during the Second World War (1944), it depicted life between the wars, 1920-1939. It wasn't, therefore, a film about "the home front", which applies strictly to society in wartime.
Loved the film. Don't give a rat's ass about the accents.
shareI don't have much of a problem with the semi-American accents. What I think may reasonably be criticized is the accents of various servants or villagers - so far as I can see played largely by English actors - who must have been directed, in the Hollywood tradition, to turn up the Cockney to the max. The setting was rural Kent, not the East End of London, and people in rural Kent do not sound like Cor Blimey Chim Chiminey Cockneys. (Come to that, I don't think real Cockneys do either.) The quirky but affecting film 'A Canterbury Tale' (1944) is more the real thing in this department. Not entirely coincidentally, the ending is rather similar too.
"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken."
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Most people in English-speaking countries in 1942, with little knowledge of accents other than their own and that of their neighbours, were ill placed to judge the authenticity of what they heard in the cinema and I doubt they worried at all.
Though there are moments that can seem laughable to British eyes and ears, this melodrama for a female audience transcends its limitations. By what it revealed of the suffering of civilians in Europe, the fortitude of the British and the brutality of the Nazi war machine, it said far more than it showed.
Complaints about accents can be overdone, to be sure. I tend to make them myself only if the accent is absurd, or if the actor can't keep it going here and there. By that measure I had no problem with Teresa Wright's performance. I simply did not notice her losing it, and the semi-American quality of it was not too much to be off putting. Perhaps English viewers would have a different standard for American actors, but too bad.
share...or if the actor can't keep it going here and there...
I think you meant to comment about the inability of the cast to mimic an ENGLISH accent!
You cannot really refer to a British accent, as it can mean a Welsh, Scottish, or Northern Irish dialect as well. All of the above countries, along with England, come under the name of Great Britain. The United Kingdom (UK) means the same thing! (confusing isn't it?) Incidently, over here we prefer to be known as English, Welsh, Scottish...British is a catch all term, and we like to identify with our country of birth. It would be like calling someone from Chile 'American' and explaining that since that country is in America, (South America) a Chilean is from the US! Annoying for the person concerned! :-)
I digress...you're right about accents..but most of us Limeys couldn't master a convincing US accent if our lives depended on it, so we've no room to talk!
Colin Blakely could do a whiz banger of an American accent, as shown in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS...
I do hope he won't upset Henry...
The United Kingdom is NOT the same as Great Britain. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain is the geographical entity (island) that now contains the three countries England, Scotland and Wales. Since 1922, when (southern) Ireland became independent, the United Kingdom has consisted of the island of Great Britain (i.e. England, Scotland and Wales) together with the province of Northern Ireland. Between 1801 and 1922 the United Kingdom consisted of Great Britain and the whole of Ireland. The United Kingdom did not exist before 1801. Between 1707 and 1800 Great Britain was also the name of a Kingdom, covering the same area as the island of Great Britain, following the union of England (and Wales) and Scotland in 1707, but before the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland in 1801.
shareI thought Walter Pidgeon's character was supposed to be an American or Canadian, I think the youngest kid's accent was the weirdest of the lot, I can't even place that accent. Not that It really matters, the film was pretty good, I don't expect a film like this to be super realistic - as long as it's entertaining .
shareChristopher Severn (Toby) was born in the US, the son of British Immigrants from South Africa. Since babies learn to speak from what they hear at home, young Chris probably heard a combination of British, South African and a wee bit of "Yank". Little Children are like sponges: They pick up EVERYTHING.
I do hope he won't upset Henry...
All British accents portrayed in film and television productions made in Britain at almost any period before 1970 were "weak". Certainly in 1942 the only "accent" used would be either, Received English or a poor imitation of cockney or some other regional accent. The former is a bizarre concontion of sounds rarely heard outside of the theatre world, the latter, an attempt at portraying working class accents. So to complain of accents used by actors in Mrs Miniver is to nit-pick.
shareI'm English, and am watching it now. What got me was how the Miniver family are portrayed as "Middle Class"; and yet they have seemingly 3 servants at the beginning of the film. A cook, and 2 maids!!!! Crikey!!!!!
Another hysterically funny scene (at the beginning) is when Greer Garson is feeding her two youngest children and telling them to go to bed: "Because I must get ready for dinner...." And then in the next shot we see her all coiffed up and dressed up at a dinner table with Walter Pidgeon; complete with maid service; and coffee in a silver-service coffee-pot. All of that fuss just to have dinner with her husband of presumably 18 plus years. Did people really used to live like that in the 1940's? With maids and such finery?
It is hard for us, over 70 years later, to decide how far the film was (i) trying to show a slice of life at the time (ii) satirising the uncaring rich or (iii) just fantasy. The Minivers were certainly well off. He could afford a smart new car, presumably paying cash, while she, with no need to work, could waste her days shopping in London. I would guess, only a supposition, that the formal dinners and the multitude of servants were reasonably authentic for upper middle class households in the home counties of England in 1939 and were shown because both would rapidly become historic.
shareSo to complain of accents used by actors in Mrs Miniver is to nit-pick.Agreed, especially considering the enduring popularity of the film over 70 years. I find the indignant tone of some of the above posts far more humorous than the accents on show in the film.🐭 share
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