The Weaker Sex

A British housewife does her own battles against the enemy during World War II.

I found the title of this rather classy wartime drama a bit misleading. Though it is told from the perspective of the widowed "Martha" (Ursula Jeans) and focusses on the stay at home elements of fighting during WWII - there isn't really anything weak about her dedication to her duties; nor of those of her counterparts. She plays her character with poignancy, dealing with the day-to-day trials and tribulations reconciling her work and her home - in which she billets RN commander "Geoffrey" (Cecil Parker) and sailor "Roddy" whilst her own two children are away serving. From a narrative perspective it climaxes with the D-Day landings and, intercut with War Office actuality, conveys a genuine sense of the fraught anticipation of those at home. Once the war has been won, the story rather peters out - a few fun jibes at the pains of rationing, and that most British of all things - the queue; and there is a degree of stoic, stiff upper lip-ness about the attitudes that makes the characterisations plausible and engaging, but it does slip a little into melodrama. There are a few welcome cameos from Thora Hird as their housekeeper (and, briefly, from Bill Owen with whom she starred in "Last of the Summer Wine" some 60-odd years later) and Kynaston Reeves. The story isn't all plain sailing: grim reality raises it's ugly head now and again, but that is handled subtly and isn't dwindled upon - helping the proceedings march along at a decent pace. I expect this went down well with audiences in 1948 - it's good.