They Were Sisters
Encyclopedia
They Were Sisters is a 1945
British melodrama film, directed by Arthur Crabtree
for Gainsborough Pictures
and starring James Mason
and Phyllis Calvert
. The film was produced by Harold Huth
, with cinematography from Jack Cox
and screenplay by Roland Pertwee
. They Were Sisters is noted for its frank, unsparing depiction of marital abuse
at a time when the subject was rarely discussed openly. It was one of the Gainsborough Melodramas
.
setting, spanning the years from the immediate aftermath of World War I
through to the late 1930s. The screenplay was developed by Pertwee from a popular novel of the same name by Dorothy Whipple
, published in 1943.
They Were Sisters features the spouses of both Mason and Calvert; Pamela Mason
(billed under her maiden name Pamela Kellino, and playing Mason's daughter despite being only seven years younger) and Peter Murray-Hill
. Despite having achieved star-status via previous Gainsborough films such as The Man in Grey
and Fanny by Gaslight
, and being arguably the top male box-office draw in the country at the time, Mason's dissatisfaction with what he saw as the limitations of the British film industry were evident during the making of the film, and he later admitted that he acted most of his bullying, sadistic role in varying degrees of drunkenness. Nevertheless, They Were Sisters was another big hit for Gainsborough, becoming one of the top grossing films of 1945 in the UK.
), Charlotte (Dulcie Gray
) and Vera (Anne Crawford
). The film opens at a dance in 1919, establishing the personalities of the four main protagonists and following them through courtship and marriage. While the sisters have remained close to one another over the years, both their characters and the paths down which their lives have travelled are very different. Lucy is the most stable of the three, a sensible and practical woman in a happy marriage, whose greatest sadness in life is her inability to have children which she sublimates by lavishing affection on her nephews and nieces. Vera is married with a child but the relationship is humdrum and loveless and she is restless and bored with her dreary home life, indulging her appetite for adventure and excitement through a series of flirtations with other men which sometimes go beyond the bounds of the socially acceptable towards the promiscuous. Charlotte is a cowed, fearful and flinching drudge, suffering severe physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her manipulative, brutal husband Geoffrey (James Mason
), who constantly belittles and humiliates her in front of their three children.
The action of the film shifts between the three households, but its main focus is the way in which Lucy and Vera have to look on impotently, unable to do anything to help matters despite their best attempts as Charlotte's treatment by her husband (who, it is strongly implied, is also engaging in an unhealthy relationship with their elder daughter) becomes ever more shocking and she spirals into alcoholism in an attempt to blur her despair. A final attempt by Charlotte to flee Geoffrey ends in tragedy as she is struck and killed by a car. Vera's marriage too crumbles, as her husband finds out about a serious extra-marital relationship in which she is involved, and petitions for divorce. The film ends by showing the four children of Charlotte and Vera being cared for by the childless Lucy.
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
British melodrama film, directed by Arthur Crabtree
Arthur Crabtree
Arthur Crabtree was a British cinematographer and film director....
for Gainsborough Pictures
Gainsborough Pictures
Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, London. Gainsborough Studios were active between 1924 and 1951. Built as a power station for the Great Northern & City Railway it...
and starring James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
and Phyllis Calvert
Phyllis Calvert
Phyllis Calvert was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s....
. The film was produced by Harold Huth
Harold Huth
Harold Huth was a British actor, film director and producer. Born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire in 1892. He made his screen debut as an actor in the 1928 film One of the Best and followed it up with the role of Captain Nolan in the film Balaclava about the Charge of the Light Brigade. He directed his...
, with cinematography from Jack Cox
Jack E. Cox
Jack E. Cox, know variously as J. J. Cox, Jack Cox, John J. Cox and John Cox, was an English cinematographer born in London, on 26 July 1896...
and screenplay by Roland Pertwee
Roland Pertwee
Roland Pertwee was an English playwright, film and television screenwriter, director and actor. He was the father of both Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee and fellow playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee...
. They Were Sisters is noted for its frank, unsparing depiction of marital abuse
Domestic violence
Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...
at a time when the subject was rarely discussed openly. It was one of the Gainsborough Melodramas
Gainsborough melodramas
The Gainsborough melodramas were a sequence of films produced by the British film studio Gainsborough Pictures during the 1940s which conformed to a melodramatic style. The melodramas were not a film series but an unrelated sequence of films which had similar themes and frequently recurring actors...
.
Background
Unlike most of the hugely successful melodramas made by Gainsborough during the mid 1940s, They Were Sisters has a near-contemporary rather than a costumeCostume drama
A costume drama or period drama is a period piece in which elaborate costumes, sets and properties are featured in order to capture the ambiance of a particular era.The term is usually used in the context of film and television...
setting, spanning the years from the immediate aftermath of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
through to the late 1930s. The screenplay was developed by Pertwee from a popular novel of the same name by Dorothy Whipple
Dorothy Whipple
Dorothy Whipple was an English writer of popular fiction.-Overview:Described as the "Jane Austen of the 20th Century" by J. B. Priestley, her work enjoyed a period of great popularity between the wars, two of her novels being made into feature films, They Were Sisters and They Knew Mr Knight...
, published in 1943.
They Were Sisters features the spouses of both Mason and Calvert; Pamela Mason
Pamela Mason
Pamela Mason was a British actress, author, and screenwriter who appeared in a number of British films.-Early life and career:...
(billed under her maiden name Pamela Kellino, and playing Mason's daughter despite being only seven years younger) and Peter Murray-Hill
Peter Murray-Hill
Peter Murray-Hill was a British actor. He was married to the actress Phyllis Calvert from 1941 until his death.-Selected filmography:* A Yank at Oxford * Jane Steps Out * The Outsider * At the Villa Rose...
. Despite having achieved star-status via previous Gainsborough films such as The Man in Grey
The Man in Grey
The Man in Grey is a 1943 British film melodrama made by Gainsborough Pictures, and is widely considered as the first of its "Gainsborough melodramas"...
and Fanny by Gaslight
Fanny by Gaslight (film)
Fanny by Gaslight was a 1944 British drama film, produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a novel by Michael Sadleir . It was one of its famous period-set "Gainsborough melodramas"...
, and being arguably the top male box-office draw in the country at the time, Mason's dissatisfaction with what he saw as the limitations of the British film industry were evident during the making of the film, and he later admitted that he acted most of his bullying, sadistic role in varying degrees of drunkenness. Nevertheless, They Were Sisters was another big hit for Gainsborough, becoming one of the top grossing films of 1945 in the UK.
Plot
The film focuses on the lives of three sisters; Lucy (Phyllis CalvertPhyllis Calvert
Phyllis Calvert was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s....
), Charlotte (Dulcie Gray
Dulcie Gray
Dulcie Gray, CBE was a British singer and actress of stage, screen and television, a mystery writer and lepidopterist.-Early life and career:...
) and Vera (Anne Crawford
Anne Crawford
Anne Crawford , born Imelda Crawford, was a British film actress, in films such as Millions Like Us...
). The film opens at a dance in 1919, establishing the personalities of the four main protagonists and following them through courtship and marriage. While the sisters have remained close to one another over the years, both their characters and the paths down which their lives have travelled are very different. Lucy is the most stable of the three, a sensible and practical woman in a happy marriage, whose greatest sadness in life is her inability to have children which she sublimates by lavishing affection on her nephews and nieces. Vera is married with a child but the relationship is humdrum and loveless and she is restless and bored with her dreary home life, indulging her appetite for adventure and excitement through a series of flirtations with other men which sometimes go beyond the bounds of the socially acceptable towards the promiscuous. Charlotte is a cowed, fearful and flinching drudge, suffering severe physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her manipulative, brutal husband Geoffrey (James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
), who constantly belittles and humiliates her in front of their three children.
The action of the film shifts between the three households, but its main focus is the way in which Lucy and Vera have to look on impotently, unable to do anything to help matters despite their best attempts as Charlotte's treatment by her husband (who, it is strongly implied, is also engaging in an unhealthy relationship with their elder daughter) becomes ever more shocking and she spirals into alcoholism in an attempt to blur her despair. A final attempt by Charlotte to flee Geoffrey ends in tragedy as she is struck and killed by a car. Vera's marriage too crumbles, as her husband finds out about a serious extra-marital relationship in which she is involved, and petitions for divorce. The film ends by showing the four children of Charlotte and Vera being cared for by the childless Lucy.
Cast
- James MasonJames MasonJames Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
as Geoffrey Lee - Phyllis CalvertPhyllis CalvertPhyllis Calvert was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s....
as Lucy Moore - Dulcie GrayDulcie GrayDulcie Gray, CBE was a British singer and actress of stage, screen and television, a mystery writer and lepidopterist.-Early life and career:...
as Charlotte Lee - Anne CrawfordAnne CrawfordAnne Crawford , born Imelda Crawford, was a British film actress, in films such as Millions Like Us...
as Vera Sargeant - Hugh SinclairHugh Sinclair (actor)Hugh Sinclair was a British actor born in London, England, the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Charterhouse School and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His first marriage was to the actress Valerie Taylor...
as Terry Crawford - Peter Murray-HillPeter Murray-HillPeter Murray-Hill was a British actor. He was married to the actress Phyllis Calvert from 1941 until his death.-Selected filmography:* A Yank at Oxford * Jane Steps Out * The Outsider * At the Villa Rose...
as William Moore - Barry LiveseyBarry LiveseyBarry Livesey was a British stage and film actor. He was sometimes credited as Barrie Livesey. He was the son of Sam Livesey and the brother of the actors Roger Livesey and Jack Livesey.-Selected filmography:* The Old Curiosity Shop...
as Brian Sargeant - Pamela KellinoPamela MasonPamela Mason was a British actress, author, and screenwriter who appeared in a number of British films.-Early life and career:...
as Margaret Lee - Ann StephensAnn StephensAnn Stephens was a British actress, popular in the 1950s. She was born in London. In July 1941 she recorded several songs including a setting of one of AA Milne's verses about Christopher Robin: "Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace" which often featured on the BBC Light Programme's Children's...
as Judith Lee
- Brian NissenBrian NissenBrian Nissen was a British actor and television continuity announcer.-Biography:Nissen made an early appearance in Laurence Olivier's film of Shakespeare's Henry V, and made many TV, film and stage appearances, including The Dam Busters , and the television series The New Adventures of Charlie...
as John Watson - David HorneDavid Horne (actor)-Biography:British actor and playwright David Horne began his film career in the 1930s, after a distinguished early career in the theatre. He was generally seen portraying pompous, self-satisfied characters...
as Mr. Field - Joss AmblerJoss AmblerJoss Ambler was an Australian-born British film and television actor.He usually played somewhat pompous figures of authority, excelling in comedy films...
as Blakemore - Roland PertweeRoland PertweeRoland Pertwee was an English playwright, film and television screenwriter, director and actor. He was the father of both Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee and fellow playwright and screenwriter Michael Pertwee...
as Sir Hamish Nair - Amy VenessAmy VenessAmy Veness was a British film actress. She played the role of Grandma Huggett in The Huggetts Trilogy.-Selected filmography:* Please Help Emily * Let Me Explain, Dear * A Southern Maid...
as Mrs. Pursley - Thorley WaltersThorley WaltersThorley Walters was an English character actor.He is probably best remembered for his comedy film roles such as in Two-Way Stretch and Carlton-Browne of the FO...
as Channing - John GilpinJohn Gilpin (dancer)John Brian Gilpin was a leading English ballet dancer and actor.He was born in Southsea, Hampshire, England, and began as a child actor in films, such as They Were Sisters and The Years Between, opposite Michael Redgrave...
as Stephen Lee - Helen Stephens as Sarah Sargeant
External links
- They Were Sisters at BFI Screen Online