This Happy Breed (1944)

Robert Newton: Frank Gibbons

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Frank Gibbons : She didn't pass on, pass over, or pass out! She died!

• Frank Gibbons : What's the use of upsetting yourself? There isn't going to be another war anyway.

  Ethel Gibbons : There'll always be wars as long as men are such fools as to want to go to them.

• Frank Gibbons : [putting down the newspaper]  Well, they're cutting down the navy, and they're cutting down the army. The only thing they don't seem to be cutting down is the unemployed!

• Frank Gibbons : [at the Wembley exhibition]  I brought them here to see the glories of Empire, and all they think about is going on the dodgems...

• Frank Gibbons : Poor old girl. You must be glad to have a 'ome of your own again. Living with your mother for four years can't have been all jam, I will say. I think I was better off in the trenches.

  Ethel Gibbons : You ought to be ashamed saying such things!

  Frank Gibbons : Your mother's alright in her way, but that house of hers in Battersea, oh dear. Gave me the willies after five weeks, let alone four years. At least we've got a bath here that doesn't scratch the hide off you.

• Frank Gibbons : Somebody once said we was a nation of gardeners, you know they weren't far wrong. We like planting things and watching 'em grow, looking out for changes in the weather.

  Ethel Gibbons : You and your garden.

  Frank Gibbons : What works in other countries won't work in this one. We got our own way of settlin' things. It may be a bit slow and it may be a bit dull, but it suits us all right and it always will.

• Ethel Gibbons : He's our only son, isn't he? He's going away from us, isn't he? It's enough to make any woman cry.

  Frank Gibbons : Well, they'll be back from the honeymoon in two weeks and living just round the corner.

  Ethel Gibbons : It's all very fine for you. You didn't bring him into the world and hold him at your breast.

  Frank Gibbons : I should have looked the proper fool if I had!

• Frank Gibbons : Marriage is a bit different, you know, from just having a bit of fun.

  Reg : Yes, I expect it is.

  Frank Gibbons : Women aren't all the same, you know, not by any manner of means. Some of them don't care what happens so long as they have a good time. Marriage isn't important to them - beyond having the ring and being Mrs. Whatever-it-is. But your mother wasn't that sort and I don't think Phyllis is either. She's a nice girl and she loves you a lot.

  Reg : I know, Dad.

  Frank Gibbons : And when a woman loves a man that much she's, uh, apt to be a bit oversensitive, you know. It's well to remember that.

  Reg : I'll remember that, Dad.

  Frank Gibbons : Just you go carefully. Be gentle. You got a long time together - all your lives, I hope, and it's worthwhile to go easy and get to know each other gradual.

• Frank Gibbons : We are as we are, and that's how we're going to stay and if you don't like it, well, you can lump it. But one of these days, when you know a bit more, you'll find out that there are worse things than being just ordinary and respectable and living the way you've been brought up to live.

• Frank Gibbons : I belong to generation of men, most of whom aren't here any more. And we all did the same thing for the same reason no matter what we thought about politics. Now that's all over and done with and we're carrying on, the best we can, just as though nothing had happened. But as a matter of fact, several things happened, and one of 'em was, this country suddenly got tired. She's tired now. But the old lady's got stamina, make no mistake about that, and it's up to us ordinary people to keep things steady. And that's your job, and just you remember it.

• Bob Mitchell : Strike me pink, it's old Gibbo.

  Frank Gibbons : You old son of a gun!

  Bob Mitchell : Blimey. I thought you was as dead as mutton after that night attack when we'd gone on to Givenchy and left you lot in the mud.

  Frank Gibbons : What me, dead as mutton? I'm tougher than that. Only one small 'ole through me leg in four years!

• Frank Gibbons : Well son...

  Reg : Well Dad?

  Frank Gibbons : I suppose I ought to be giving you a few bits of fatherly advice by rights...

  Reg : What about Dad?

  Frank Gibbons : Well, there's the "facts of life" for instance...

  Reg : I could probably tell you a few things about them.

  Frank Gibbons : Yeah, I'll bet you could at that.

• Frank Gibbons : Here, let's have a look at you.

  Ethel Gibbons : What for?

  Frank Gibbons : Just to see what's happened to your face. You know, I don't seem to have had time for a really good look at it since I got back.

  Ethel Gibbons : Oh, stop it. Leave go.

  Frank Gibbons : Here, hold still a minute.

  Ethel Gibbons : Now see here, Frank Gibbons.

  Frank Gibbons : It's not such a bad face as faces go, I will say.

  Ethel Gibbons : Oh, thanks very much I'm sure.

  Frank Gibbons : Of course, it's not quite as young as it was when I married it.

  Ethel Gibbons : Leave hold of me.

  Ethel Gibbons : But taken by and large, I wouldn't change it.

• Frank Gibbons : Now, then.

  Ethel Gibbons : Now then what?

  Frank Gibbons : Give us a kiss.

  Ethel Gibbons : I'll do no such thing!

  Frank Gibbons : And why not, may I ask?

  Ethel Gibbons : We haven't got no time for fooling about and well you know it.

  Frank Gibbons : Oh, turning nasty, are we? We'll soon see about that.

  Ethel Gibbons : Frank Gibbons!

  Frank Gibbons : Shut up.

  [kiss] 

• Frank Gibbons : Some people certainly do have queer ways of enjoying themselves, don't they?

• Frank Gibbons : Put your wife first always. Anything that's liable to bust up your home and your life with your wife and your kids - Well, it's just not worth it. You remember that and you won't go far wrong.

• Frank Gibbons : Well, uh, would you say, taken by and large that you've been a good boy on the whole since you've grown up?

  Reg : Depends on what you mean by good.

• Frank Gibbons : A few years ago we had Reg nagging at us because we were living on the fat of the land while the poor workers were starving. Now we have Queenie turning on us because we're not grand enough for her.

• Frank Gibbons : Have you come to see Queenie?

  Billy Mitchell : Well as a matter of fact, I thought that Reg might...

  Frank Gibbons : You'll find her in the living room.

• Frank Gibbons : Ernie must be getting quite a big boy now.

  Edie : 'E's turned 16. But you'd never think it. 'E's short, like Dad, you know.

  Frank Gibbons : Oh. I see.

  Edie : 'E's started tryin' to shave hisself with Dad's razor. You'd 'ave died 'o laughin' if you'd've seen 'im!

  Frank Gibbons : Did he cut himself?

  Edie : Not badly - just took the top of one or two spots...

• Billy Mitchell : If in two or three years' time, when I've worked my way up a bit, Queenie and me got married, would you mind?

  Frank Gibbons : Well, if Queenie wanted it it, it wouldn't matter if I minded or not, you know - she'd get her own way, she always does...

• Frank Gibbons : I do wish everyone would stop fussin' - it gives me the pip.

• Ethel Gibbons : it's wrong, isn't it? All this "down with everything" business?

  Frank Gibbons : Well, there's something to be said for it. There's always something to be said for everything. But where they go wrong is trying to get things done too quickly. We don't like doing things quickly in this country.

• Frank Gibbons : What's the betting they haven't been smoking themselves silly up in Reg's room?

  Ethel Gibbons : Well, it is Christmas.

• Ethel Gibbons : You'll stay and have a bite with us, won't you, Bob?

  Bob Mitchell : No, thank you, all the same, Nora's got something for me next door.

  Frank Gibbons : Here, have a drink.

  Ethel Gibbons : You've had quite enough to drink, Frank, and well you know it.

  Bob Mitchell : Better not, old man. Ethel's quite right. Women are always right. That's why we cherish them. God bless 'em.

  Ethel Gibbons : You'd better cherish yourself next door, Bob. Nora will be having one of her upsets if she's got something hot for you to eat and you're not there to eat it.

• Frank Gibbons : Son, I belong to a generation of men, most of whom aren't here anymore and we all did the same thing for the same reason, no matter what we thought about politics. That's all over and done with, and we're carrying on the best we can - just as though nothing had happened. But as a matter of fact, several things happened and one of them was that this country suddenly got tired. She's tired now, but the Old Lady's got stamina, don't you make any mistake about that. And it's up to us ordinary people to keep things steady. That's your job, and just you remember it.

• Bob Mitchell : I say it's a bit posh going to the South of France for honeymoon, n'est-ce pas?

  Frank Gibbons : Uh, oui, oui.

• Frank Gibbons : Well, they're cutting down the navy and they're cutting down the army. The only thing they don't seem to be cutting down is the unemployed.

• Frank Gibbons : Your Mum and me would be much obliged if you'd keep your tongue between your teeth and behave yourself.

• Mrs. Flint : It seems only yesterday.

  Ethel Gibbons : What does, Mother?

  Mrs. Flint : The day you and Frank was married. I can see your poor Aunt Connie now, coughing her heart out in the vestry. It was only three months after that she was taken.

  Frank Gibbons : That's right.

  Mrs. Flint : I should be lucky if I last out another year.

  Frank Gibbons : Oh, dear, oh, dear.

  Mrs. Flint : I don't suppose anybody would mind much. There's many as might say it was a blessing in disguise, I shouldn't wonder.

• [last lines] 

  Frank Gibbons : I don't mind how many flats we move into, where we go or what we do, so long as I've got you.

  Ethel Gibbons : Don't talk so silly.

• Frank Gibbons : I wonder what happens to rooms when people give them up go away and leave the house empty?

  Bob Mitchell : How do you mean?

  Frank Gibbons : I don't know. I was thinking about you going away from next door after all this time and me and Ethel going away, too, pretty soon, and wondering what the next people that live in this room will be like. Whether they'll feel any bits of us left about the place.

  Bob Mitchell : Here, shut up. You're giving me the willies.

• Frank Gibbons : You're a funny woman, Ethel, and no mistake.

  Ethel Gibbons : I expect I am. We're as God made us. I suppose there's nothing much to be done about it.

  Frank Gibbons : Well, I wouldn't be so sure.

• Frank Gibbons : An Englishman's home is his castle. Hmm. Bungo.

  Bob Mitchell : Bungo.

• Frank Gibbons : I've seen something today that I wouldn't believe could happen in this country. I've seen thousands of people - British people, mark you - carrying on like maniacs, shouting and cheering with relief for no other reason but that they've been thoroughly frightened. And it made me sick and that's a fact. And I only hope to goodness we've got guts enough to learn one lesson from this and we shall never find ourselves in a position again where we have to appease anybody.

  Aunt Sylvia : All you men ever think about is having guts and being top dog and killing each other. I'm a woman. I don't care how much we appease so long as we don't have a war. War is wicked and evil and vile. Them that live by the sword shall die by the sword. It's more blessed to give than to receive.

  Frank Gibbons : Well, I don't think it's more blessed to give in than receive a nice kick in the pants for doing it.

• Frank Gibbons : It's a strange world.

  Bob Mitchell : You said it.

  Frank Gibbons : All them years. All the things that happened in them. I wouldn't go back over them again for all the rice in China, would you?

• Frank Gibbons : Well, I'll be blowed.