Two Fathers

Anthony Asquith directed this amiable little story about a French gent (Paul Bonifas) who arrives at a small hotel where he is obliged to share a room with "Hillier" (Bernard Miles). The latter man is full of faux-French phrases and is cheerily trying to engage his rather grumpy room-mate but it's a photo that starts them both chatting about their respective daughter and son. "Hillier" is supposedly celebrating his son't first RAF "kill" but quickly it's clear that something isn't right between the father and son. As they chat more, the story develops and a little flashback illustrates the mischief making of the visitor's increasingly independently minded teenage daughter and then the arrival of the Nazis brings the horrors of war to both men. It's told largely by way of a simply evocative conversation between these chaps and it gently reminds the audience that World War Two, though still ongoing, did leave a little room for an optimism and hope that maybe put other things into perspective.