Spring and Port Wine (1970)

This warm-hearted drama centres around the Cromptons, a large working-class family who live together in Bolton.

Rafe Crompton (James Mason) is the head of the house, god-fearing and old-fashioned with a set of rules that everyone must abide by.

Everyone pays money for their keep, the family sit down to share meals together on time – and on Friday evenings, that means grilled fresh herrings –  but his authority is starting to be challenged by his children, most of whom are practically adults and from another generation entirely.

Harold (Rodney Bewes) would like to be treated with more respect, while Florence (Hannah Gordon) finds Rafe disapproving of the notion that she might marry her boyfriend. When his other daughter Hilda (Susan George) suddenly decides she “doesn’t fancy” herrings for tea one Friday and feels entitled – as she pays money into the family kitty now – to choose what she wants to eat.

Rafe declares that the herrings will be brought out every time they have dinner from now on until she eats them, asserting “this is a home not a cafeteria!”.

A battle of wills between father and daughter ensues, and tensions begin to rise in the house with Daisy Crompton (Diana Coupland) caught somewhere in the middle between her husband and children as meal succeeds meal over and on each occasion the herring is set before Hilda, who disdainfully rejects it. The herring begins to look very dilapidated as it continues to make its appearance.

As her father knows quite well, Hilda is not going without food. Mum sees to that. But an unpleasant atmosphere is building up at mealtimes around the table. Finally, and unknown to each other, the two contenders decide they have had enough and are ready to give in.

Hilda tells her mother that she will eat the herring at their next meal, and Rafe tells his wife that if Hilda will make the smallest gesture towards complying with his wishes, he intends to whip the herring away from her before she has a chance to touch it.

The matter seems about to resolve itself amicably without loss of face to either side, when young Wilfred – tired of the mealtime tension in the house – decides to end the matter his own way by giving the herring to the cat.

Rafe is not amused. He knows the cat hasn’t stolen the herring, and someone must therefore have tried to undermine his authority by a deliberate act to thwart him.

Suspicion falls upon Wilfred, who at first denies it. His father presses him to the point of making him swear on the Bible that he is telling the truth. Poor Wilfred, overwhelmed by the pressure his father is exerting on him, tries to confess but falls into a faint.

A witness to all this is Florence’s fiancé, Arthur Gasket (Keith Buckley), who accuses Rafe of being a bully and tells him that he has forfeited the respect which Arthur had hitherto had for him. He asks Florence to leave her home and to live with him and his mother until they can be married.

Rafe’s standing with his family has reached its lowest ebb, and the silly incident of the uneaten herring sets off a chain reaction that none of the participants could have foreseen when the family settled down so contentedly for their Friday evening meal. It is an object lesson in how, from small and even ludicrous beginnings, emotions can escalate until a family is split asunder and a woman is driven towards a final desperate act.

James Mason is wonderful as Rafe Crompton, who is authoritarian and slightly tyrannical at times but also kind and sometimes amusing.

The film is quite moving in the way that it depicts Rafe as increasingly out of touch with the modern world (1970 in this case) but essentially a proud, decent man who is trying to make sure his children never have to go through the hardships he did.

Susan George (who looks like a young supermodel or pop star and doesn’t quite fit the name Hilda) is also quite good when she digs her heels in and stands up to Rafe.

Rafe might be a trifle stern and annoying but we see that he probably hasn’t done a bad job at all whenever Hilda visits the Duckworths next door who are slobbish and rude to each other – although they do have Adrienne Posta as a daughter!

Hannah Gordon also plays an important role as the older daughter Florence. Florence is more loyal to her father than the others but is also becoming closer to her boyfriend Arthur (Keith Buckley) and has her own big decisions to make about the future.

The younger son Wilfred, a bit of a scamp, is played by Len Jones who was a famous child actor in this era and best known as the voice of Joe 90. Other famous faces who make (brief) appearances in the film are Bernard Bresslaw and Arthur Lowe.

The film was partly shot on location in Bolton which gives it an authentic feel. It has that late sixties/early seventies atmosphere of a place that is changing all the time with new houses going up.

The herring incident is used for comic purposes when it is brought out at each mealtime (to military strains) and the defiant Hilda ignores it with a mildly amused air.

The solution to the herring problem is provided by young Wilfred and is also funny too.

Rafe Crompton
James Mason
Daisy Crompton
Diana Coupland
Florence Crompton
Hannah Gordon
Hilda Crompton
Susan George
Harold Crompton
Rodney Bewes
Wilfred Crompton
Len Jones
Arthur Gasket
Keith Buckley
Betsy-Jane Duckworth
Avril Elgar
Betty Duckworth
Adrienne Posta
Ned Duckworth
Frank Windsor
Mr Aspinall
Arthur Lowe
Mrs Gasket
Marjorie Rhodes
Lorry Driver
Bernard Bresslaw

Director
Peter Hammond