Rent Background (1953)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Two years of deterioration sees John (Philip Friend) and Barbara (Valerie Hobson) Lomax's marriage reduced to bitter sniping and "keeping up appearances" for the sake of the children. When John's old friend Bill (Norman Wooland) professes his love for Barbara, the marriage finally breaks up - causing their three children to react in different ways and their son secretly determined to do Bill harm...
- Actors:
- Valerie Hobson, Philip Friend, Norman Wooland, Janette Scott, Mandy Miller, Jeremy Spenser, Lily Kann, Helen Shingler, Thora Hird, Louise Hampton, Jack Melford, Richard Wattis, Joss Ambler, Paul Harding, Lloyd Lamble, Barbara Hicks, Ernest Butcher
- Directors:
- Daniel Birt
- Producers:
- Herbert Mason
- Writers:
- Warren Chetham Strode, Don Sharp
- Aka:
- Edge of Divorce
- Studio:
- Network
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
More like Background
Reviews (1) of Background
A Very Proper Case - Background review by CH
If the lovers in Brief Encounter had spawned a child, it would be Background (1953). Philip Friend is an ambitious barrister married to Valerie Hobson; their well-clipped accents are rather different from that of a long-serving housekeeper (Lily Kann). Talk echoes around their smart suburban house where the children are on holiday from boarding school; it takes nasty turns as the marriage founders and another man (Norman Wooland) appears on the scene to enjoy a round of afternoon cinema and teashops and plans for life on a Dorset farm.
All this is given edge by the three children – Jeremy Spenser, Jeanette Scott and Mandy Miller. They dispute amongst themselves, and even brawl in a way that is rather more convincing than many an adult fight in Fifties films. Such is the venom caused by the parents' news that Jeremy Spenser fixes a photograph to a dartboard and pierces it with a well-aimed shot.
This splendid performance is a harbinger of the startling turn in the film's second half. Sufficiently opened up by screenwriter Warren Chetham Strode (perhaps best known for The Guinea Pig) from his own play, here is a film with more to savour than might at first appear.