They Were Sisters

Over-ripe but enjoyable Gainsborough Studios melodrama set in the sleepy Home Counties and charting the marital problems of three middle class sisters. Cads don't come any worse than James Mason's sneering, scowling, sadistic alcoholic, who is equally cruel to animals and children (he tries to kill his son's pet dog), and who gradually drives his long-suffering wife (Dulcie Gray) to the brink. Also unhappy in her marriage is headstrong Vera (Anne Crawford), who's hitched to a decent but dull chap and yearns for some extramarital excitement. Only Phyllis Calvert is content, but she and her husband have their own trials to endure - they can't have children. The plotting may be schematic, the performances overwrought, but that's true of all the best soap operas. ('From the famous novel by Dorothy Whipple.')