These Charming People: A bit of a dusty, polite mess

Is this for you?

If you have a soft spot for 1930s British social satire, you’ll probably find something to enjoy here. It’s polite, it’s talky, and everyone is incredibly well-dressed even when their lives are falling apart. If you need explosions or a plot that moves faster than a Victorian carriage, you should probably stay far, far away. ☕

The whole thing feels a bit like a stage play that someone forgot to take off the stage. The rooms are grand, but there’s a weird, stifling air to them. You can almost smell the mothballs on the curtains.

Oddly specific observations

• Ann Todd is doing a lot of heavy lifting with just her eyebrows.
• The way the background characters stand around in the garden scenes is genuinely distracting. Half of them look like they’re waiting for a bus that never arrives.
• There’s a moment with a tea service that lasts three times longer than it needs to. I found myself counting the clinks of the spoon against the china.

I couldn't help but think of Crinoline and Romance while watching this, mostly because both movies seem obsessed with the idea that being posh is a full-time, exhausting job. It’s not a fun job, either. It’s all etiquette and keeping your voice down.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of These Charming People (1931) through its definitive frames.

Cyril Maude shows up and just sort of anchors the room. He’s the only one who looks like he knows the movie is a bit of a farce, and he’s leaning into it just enough to be funny without breaking the spell. It’s a quiet performance, really.

The dialogue is snappy, but it feels like it’s been polished until the edges are gone. It’s all very “I say” and “oh, do be careful,” which is fine for ten minutes. By the hour mark, I was kind of hoping someone would just flip a table or start shouting.

There is this one scene—I think it’s halfway through—where the pacing just falls off a cliff. Two characters talk about a situation that doesn't actually matter to the main plot for what felt like an eternity. I checked my phone. I checked my watch. The conversation was still going.

It’s not a bad movie. It’s just... polite. It’s the kind of thing you put on while doing laundry on a rainy Sunday. It won't change your life, but it won't offend you either. Sometimes that’s enough, I guess. 🤷‍♂️