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This is a sentimental romantic story about a young veterinary surgeon in a rural part of the North of England in the late 1930's.
It's played entirely straightforwardly, and faithfully to the autobiography of James Herriot; and the feel of the period is well portrayed. There was a very successful television series shown in the UK also based, much more loosely, on the book, but with no other connection with the film.
The only snag with film versions of powerful autobiographies is that the latter tend to consist of a series of episodic events without much to connect them, and somehow in the film version this effect seems more noticeable. Nonetheless the film is a good family film and recommended.
Older British viewers might like to look out for the character Mrs Pumphrey, played by Daphne Oxenford. The lady used to read children's stories on the radio many, many decades ago, and I never knew what she looked like until I saw her in the film.
Nearly an hour into the film, Herriot has finally got round to inviting a woman he admires, out to a dance. On the way his old car breaks down during a rainstorm, and his evening clothes are ruined while changing a wheel. They go back to her place, and he borrows the woman's father's suit. We see him and the father making small talk in the parlour; the girlfriend comes into the room carrying a pair of shoes, and says:
"There we are ... will these be all right? ..."
Herriot takes a pair of her flat court shoes from her, rather gingerly, and says, "Oh ... thank you."
Nothing more is made of this except the expression of embarrassment in his body language, and subsequent shots of him at the hotel they went to, do not include his feet.
HF April 2003
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