ianlouisiana
Forget the smoke and mirrors of "Ryan's Daughter",this is John Mills' best performance.There is real depth in Bill Naughton's script and Mr Mills brings it all out.No longer the perky cockney other-rank or the clipped-voice officer Mr Mills goes up a gear to produce a creation J.B.Priestley would have been proud of.The film takes rather less than two hours to tell a story that a TV soap would string out for six months. Sexually dysfunctional husbands were not common currency in 1967 and "The Family Way" was rather daring for bringing them out of the closet,so to speak.Hywel Bennet and Hayley Mills exemplify the optimism and resilience of youth on the cusp of the swinging sixties,and you hope that they will make a proper "go" of their marriage after its rather unfortunate start. With her vast experience of similar roles Marjorie Rhodes could have phoned her performance in,instead she invests her part with love and care the way only a very considerable artist can. Considered basically as a "sex comedy" in its day"The Family Way" is overdue a critical revision.As a look at working-class life it lacks the cynicism of John Braine ,the polemic of Alan Sillitoe and the rose-coloured sentimentalism of Alan Bennett.I cared about these people. They weren't the victims of beastly southern mill owners,intellectuals deprived of their rightful place in North London by a conspiracy of jessies from the Camden Town triangle,or slightly strange middle aged persons living at home with their widowed mothers,they were - in common with 99% of the rest of us - ordinary people just trying to make the best of what life comes up with.I urge you to seek this one out,you won't forget it n a hurry.
nb2
A wonderfully gentle, warm funny movie set in Lancashire. One of the best to come out in the 1960s, memorable performances from some fine British actors. There are scenes that I will never forget even though I have not seen the movie since it was released in 1966. Liz Fraser and Barry Foster were just hilarious, Marjorie Rhodes had tears streaming down my face and the late, lamented Sir John Mills was superb. I wish, I wish it were available to buy on DVD. So many of Hayley Mills' movies have not seen the light of day for so long that one wonders if there is some kind of embargo on them - fans of her work will no doubt know what I mean. She is sweet, tender, vulnerable and utterly charming as Jenny Fitton - very authentic northern vowels and an excellent performance. The character roles were by far the juicier ones and the excellent cast seize on their characters like ravening wolves - I never seen Marjorie Rhodes so electrifying. I suppose you probably need to be English and from the Manchester area to fully appreciate every nuance of expression and bask in the resonance of this great, smashing movie. On the other hand, I don't suppose it matters where you come from to appreciate young Hayley's scene in the bathtub when the camera lingers for a few heart-stopping moments on her perfect little bare bottom. Thank you, Hayley.
John Frame
The Family Way gives an honest look into two generations of a working class family - each generation trying to live up to other's expectations.
The sexuality of more than one male character is questioned and the way that topic is handled is what makes this film unique and memorable.Deep, beautifully performed, romantic, dramatic and very entertaining.
Zozimus
Fear not, I am not going to reveal what I consider to be one of the best lines in all cinema, as spoken by John Mills in this English classic. I agree completely with jw-8's comments on this. Now everybody knows Rhett Butler's "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." That is not actually the last line in Gone With The Wind, and I am not going to risk being blacklisted for telling you the actual last line in The Family Way either. Just take it from me, if you get a chance to see this movie, give it a look. I see that it is billed here as a comedy, I think it would be much better labelled "drama".
AD
