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<table width="778" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td class="filmmastbg" valign="bottom"> <div class="mastheadfilm">Cure For Love, The (1949)</div> </td> </tr> </table> </td></tr> <tr><td width="30"> </td> <td valign="top"> <table width="740" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="3"></td></tr> <tr><td width="435" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="435" height="20" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2" height="24"><p class="smg"> Courtesy of STUDIOCANAL </p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" height="149"> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" width="417"> <tr> <td colspan="3" height="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="10" alt="" border="0" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="32" valign="top" rowspan="2"><img src="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/files/1083416.jpg" alt="Main image of Cure For Love, The (1949)" /></td> <td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="10" height="10" alt="" border="0" /></td> <td valign="top" width="366" height="12"> <table width="95%" border="0" style="font-size: 0.6em;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="credsum"> <tbody><tr style="display: none;"><td colspan="2"> </td></tr><tr><td colspan="2">35mm, black and white, 98 mins</td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> <tr><td>Director</td><td>Robert Donat</td></tr> <tr><td>Production Companies</td><td>London Film Productions, Island Films</td></tr> <tr><td>Producer</td><td>Robert Donat</td></tr> <tr><td>Screenplay</td><td>Robert Donat, Alexander Shaw, Albert Fennell</td></tr> <tr><td>Original play</td><td>Walter Greenwood</td></tr> <tr><td> Photography</td><td>Jack Cox</td></tr> <tr><td>Music</td><td>William Alwyn</td></tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <div class="castsum"> <p>Cast: Robert Donat (Sergeant Jack Hardacre), Ren茅e Asherson (Milly Southern), Marjorie Rhodes (Mrs Sarah Hardacre), Charles Victor (Harry Lancaster), Thora Hird (Mrs Nancy Dorbell), Gladys Henson (Mrs Jenkins), Dora Bryan (Janey Jenkins)</p><a href="credits.html" class="smg-link">Show full cast and credits</a> </div> </td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <div class="plotsum"> <p>Sergeant Jack Hardacre returns from the war, intending to do the decent thing by his long-term fianc茅e Janey Jenkins, even though he can't stand her. But when he meets his mother's lodger, Millie Southern, his life and emotions are turned upside down.</p> <a href="synopsis.html" class="smg-link">Show full synopsis</a> </div> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <p>Very much a labour of love, <cite class="party">Robert Donat</cite>'s only film as director, producer and co-adapter was based on a play by his close friend, the Salford-born writer <cite class="party">Walter Greenwood</cite>, who had originally made his reputation with the 1933 novel <cite>Love on the Dole</cite> (filmed 1941, d. John Baxter). <cite class="party">Donat</cite> himself directed the 1945 stage premiere at the Westminster Theatre, and created the role of Sergeant Jack Hardacre opposite <cite class="party">Ren茅e Asherson</cite> as Millie Southern.</p><p>He spent several years trying to get the film version made, by which time <cite class="party">Asherson</cite> had become his second wife. The script was modified slightly in the transition from stage to screen (at the end, Jack and Millie announce that they are secretly married, not that she is pregnant by him), but in most other respects <cite class="party">Donat</cite> ensured that it remained true to the original's vividly-drawn atmosphere and dialect, with everyone but London-born Millie played by Lancashire or Yorkshire natives.</p><p>Though <cite class="party">Donat</cite>'s shy, hesitant performance as the confused, lovelorn but impeccably honourable Jack seems incongruous when set against his dashing screen image, it actually revived what the elocution training at the start of his career had been designed to suppress: his natural Manchester accent, and a pronounced stammer.</p><p>As with similar plays by Northern writers such as <cite class="party">Harold Brighouse</cite>, <cite class="party">Stanley Houghton</cite> and <cite class="party">Alan Bennett</cite>, the women are particularly well-drawn, with <cite class="party">Asherson</cite> a vivacious Millie, and <cite class="party">Dora Bryan</cite> and <cite class="party">Gladys Henson</cite> contributing a terrifying double act as the brassy Janey Jenkins and her opportunist mother (whose initial dirtying and subsequent neglect of her choirboy son's surplice provides a revealing running gag). <cite class="party">Marjorie Rhodes</cite> is Jack's practical and no-nonsense mother Sarah, unmoved by the local publican's wooing, while <cite class="party">Thora Hird</cite> provides one of the earliest onscreen examples of her extensive gallery of doughty Lancashire matriarchs. Despite her role as purveyor of aged wisdom to the gauche young Jack, she was six years younger than <cite class="party">Donat</cite> in real life.</p><p>Aside from a few attractive location shots and an inventive use of distorted sound to highlight Janey's effect on Jack's psyche, <cite class="party">Donat</cite> the director makes next to no attempt to disguise the piece's stage origins: like many actors in his position, he clearly regarded script and cast as paramount. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film opened to a low-key critical reception in London (the <em>Monthly Film Bulletin's</em> entire review: "Antediluvian regional farce"), but was a huge hit north of the Midlands.</p><p class="bricksrc">Michael Brooke</p> <img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="10" border="0" alt="" /> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr> </table></td> <td width="1" class="verticaldots"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td> <td width="312" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="312" height="20" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="3" height="1" border="0" /></td><td><p class="smg">Click titles to see or read more <img src="../../../images/film/icon_arrow.gif" class="noblock" border="0" alt="" /></p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="15"><img src="../../../images/gt/GT_film_clips.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="" border="0" /></td> <td class="rh-headcell-film"><span class="thumbhead-film">Video Clips</span></td> </tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="3" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../../../media/stream.jsp?id=1086418" class="clipmenu-link"><img src="../../../images/icon_film.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />1. A shy romance (4:29)</a></td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../../../media/stream.jsp?id=1086429" class="clipmenu-link"><img src="../../../images/icon_film.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />2. Jack and Janey (3:08)</a></td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../../../media/stream.jsp?id=1086443" class="clipmenu-link"><img src="../../../images/icon_film.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />3. Fait accompli (2:21)</a></td></tr> <tr><td valign="top"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="10" height="25" alt="" /></td></tr> </table></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="../../../images/gt/GT_articles.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="" border="0" /></td> <td class="rh-headcell-film"><span class="thumbhead-film">GALLERY / SCRIPTS / AUDIO</span></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="3" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../../../media/mfb/1083496/index.html" onclick="scriptpopUp(this.href);return false;" class="clipmenu-link"><img src="../../../images/icon_document.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />Monthly Film Bulletin review</a></td></tr> <tr><td valign="top"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="10" height="25" alt="" /></td></tr> </table></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"> <tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="20"><img src="../../../images/gt/GT_tv_clips02.jpg" alt="" class="rh-thumbpic" border="0" /></td> <td class="rh-headcell-film"><span class="thumbhead-film">SEE ALSO</span></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="3" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../../../people/id/841931/index.html" class="clipmenu-link"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />Bryan, Dora (1924-)</a></td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../../../people/id/447641/index.html" class="clipmenu-link"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />Donat, Robert (1905-1958)</a></td></tr> <tr><td><a href="../../../people/id/528242/index.html" class="clipmenu-link"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" vspace="2" class="clipmenu-icon-right" border="0" />Hird, Thora (1911-2003)</a></td></tr> <tr><td valign="top"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="10" height="25" alt="" /></td></tr> </table></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> </table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width="8"> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="778" height="20" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3"><table width="778" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr class="upperfoot"> <td width="465" align="right" class="upperfoot"></td> <td class="upperfoot"><div class="footer-txt">  <a href="../../../help/terms.html" class="copylink">2003-14 © BFI Screenonline </a> | <a href="../../../help/credits.html" class="copylink">credits</a></div></td> <td align="right" class="upperfoot"><img src="../../../images/nav/lowernav_right_mask.gif" alt="" border="0" /></td> </tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </div></center> <script type="text/javascript"> var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? 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