Starring Michael Wilding, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Lilli Palmer, Claude
Dauphin, Albert Lieven, Peggy Cummins, Margaret Rutherford
Directed by Harold French

Print: black/white
Runtime: 89 min.
Genre: comedy
Print Quality: B

English without Tears is a gentle satire of the temporary relaxation of
class barriers in wartime England. Michael Wilding portrays the faithful
family butler to a fabulously wealthy household. Each member of the
family greets the news of upcoming world conflict with a different
reaction, the most altruistic of which is that of the daughter (Penelope
Dudley Ward), who joins the home service. When the butler rises to the
army rank of lieutenant, the daughter sees him in a whole new light and
falls in love with her onetime employee. There's little in this frivolous film
that hasn't been done elsewhere, except perhaps for the opening-scene
romantic complications in Geneva, which set the stage for the film's
finale. English without Tears was released in the US in 1948 as Her Man
Gilbey.