If ever a film brought together the broad stereotypes of
what Ealing Studios is famous for, Johnny
Frenchman is it. A documentary impulse wedded to a patriotic narrative
about communities pulling together, with comic undertones and well-drawn
characters, filmed largely on location, this ticks many of the Ealing Studios
boxes. It’s also about wartime, serving your country, and the possibilities of
post-war society. Although saddled with an episodic narrative, the
performances, editing and location work are largely worth the effort.
The story, set between 1939 and 1945, is about the relationship
between two Cornish and Breton villages, one born of competition and rivalry
(the Breton fishermen are accused of poaching crabs from the sea nearby) which
develops through romance and jealousy, to one where everyone pulls together for
the common good. From calls at the beginning that ‘Johnny Frenchman’ should be
sent back where they came from, to claims that ‘we are friends at last’ and
that the two villages have become one, this is fairly populist propaganda about
European neighbours and post-war partnership.
The film’s main drama is romantic, as Sue Pomeroy (Patricia
Roc, on loan to Ealing from Gainsborough) has to choose between her long-term
childhood sweetheart Bob Tremayne (Ralph Michael, in full stalwart but dull
mode) and dashing Yan Kervarec (Paul Dubois). Yet while this is the heart of
the film, it can be slow-moving, as Sue accepts she doesn’t love Bob, is
attracted to Yan, decides she loves Yan, Yan is taken away by the war, Bob returns,
and then finally Yan and Sue marry. This element of the plot often drags, as there
is no real tension, as Bob is presented as solid and dependable – Charles Barr
notes that Bob is never anything more than a sporting loser who displaces his
feelings into fishing and being in service. While that does Bob a slight
disservice (he and Yan do have a wrestling scene and a punch-up during a
French-English singing practice) Ralph Michael has little to work with here to
develop the character, and he and Roc share absolutely no chemistry, meaning
Bob is never presented as a serious contender for Sue’s affections. Yan, by
contrast, is active, charming, sexual and masculine – even if Bob does somehow
break his thigh (?) during their wrestling bout. While there is no sense of an
homoerotic bond between Yan and Bob, the film does go out of its way to put
them together (wrestling, fighting, serving on the same boat, and then pouring
drinks together in the pub in one of the final scenes), often abandoning Sue to
the company of unidentified village women and children.
But if the Sue-Bob-Yan love triangle is not the film’s main
appeal, what is? In terms of performances and characters, that belongs to the
relationship between harbour master Nat Pomeroy (Tam Walls) and Lanec Florrie
(Francoise Rosay), the elder states-people of their respective villages, and a
grumpy odd couple. The film is underpinned by their bickering and
one-upmanship: Florrie leads the French poachers, Nat steals her boat keys
until she pays harbour taxes; Nat bans Florrie from fishing on a Sunday,
Florrie goes out anyway. The scene where Nat and Florrie argue about Yan and
Sue marrying is particularly strong, due to Walls and Rosay’s performances,
conveying the characters’ shock at realising they actually agree for the first
time.
The relationship takes a strange turn in the final third of
the film: when Nat bans Sue from his house for marrying Yan, Florrie appears to
move in, and is suddenly helping Nat take off his boots, and cooking for him
and his younger son. Her role becomes more domestic, and their verbal sparring
decreases. That seems to be preparing the way for the final rapprochement
between the villages, as Florrie sails out to ward off a floating mine that is
heading into the harbour, thus saving all their boats (and livelihoods) and
preventing a disaster. For this, she is hoisted on the Cornish villager’s
shoulders, and carried to the pub for a celebration: and there, announces ‘I
know we are friends, at last. When the war is over and we go home again, don’t
think you’ll get rid of us, we’ll be back... we’ll be back because we’ve found
another home here.’
So, the theme of community – and of communities coming
together, and getting over their differences – is strong throughout, and drives
most of the character and narrative dynamics: for all the fighting and
uncertainty, both communities help out the other when it is needed (the French
hide British soldiers when the Germans arrive, the British welcome French
refugees feeling the Nazis). Much of this is also done visually, with the
location filming helping to create a strong sense of the small Cornish village
based around its harbour and fishing industry. At several points in the film,
these streets and alleyways are thronged with villagers rushing to and from the
harbour, or the pub, giving a real sense of the wider community beyond the main
characters (in this sense, it is reminiscent of similar scenes in Whisky Galore! (1949). The documentary
impulse is also strong around community imagery: the fishermen on the beach
pulling together to drag in a net full of fish (which is given a commentary
from an older fisherman on the hill, functioning almost as a voiceover
narrator), or the visit to the Breton village to see a local festival that
blesses the sea (which, again, an older Cornish character ‘explains’ to the
other characters, and the audience).
Throughout, the work of editor Michael Truman and assistant
editor Barbara Bennett is particularly strong, and the link to the montage
tradition of the British documentary movement is evident in many sequences
(again, the pulling in of the fish, and the sharp cuts between grimacing faces,
hands tightening, fish flopping in the net; or the final mine scene, cutting
between ship, nets, mine and onlookers, to create a tense sequence in an
otherwise slow-paced film).
With strong supporting work among the different villagers
and French fishermen, and a series of strong cinematography both on the boats
(some scenes make use of back projection, but most are filmed on the water) and
along the coastline, the film may be slow-moving in places, but is, overall, an
enjoyable little film with a strong central message about working, and
cooperating, with European neighbours: from the ‘English and French were never
meant to mix’ to two villages becoming one.
Next time, sticking with the war theme, we join up with the Ships With Wings (1941)...
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