Reviewed by Adam Stephen Kelly
Stars James Mason, Susan George, Diana Coupland,
Rodney Beaves, Len Jones | Written by Bill Naughton
UK certification 12 | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 97 minutes | Directed by Peter Hammond
Written for the screen by Bill Naughton and based on his own play of the same name, Spring and Port Wine is a father-knows-best story of a working class family in the north of England.
With the three-time Oscar-nominated James Mason in the leading role as the stubborn head of the household, his character Rafe Crompton has you in the palm of his hand from the get go, forcing you to become a member of his family and feel the pressure and strain of his outrageous rules.
From social repression to a ridiculous family feud over one of his daughter's unwillingness to eat a “bonnie fresh herring cooked in best butter”, to quote Mason, Spring and Port Wine is an accurate dramatic portrait of family life in 1960s and '70s England.
Most of the film takes place in a single location – the Crompton residence – as you might expect from such an adaptation, and the setting couldn't play any better into Mason's grumpy reign over his family and eventual redemption; his performance is unsurprisingly superb in a strongly written drama, and proves that there truly is no place like home, and no life like family life.
EXTRAS ★ The trailer.