Tawny Pipit (1944)

Directed by Bernard Miles and Charles Saunders; produced by Herbert Smith (associate producer)

A young Royal Air Force pilot (Niall MacGinnis) is convalescing in the English countryside with his girlfriend (Rosamund John). The couple, bird-watchers in a small way, spy a tawny pipit, who appears to be building a nest. Realizing this is a rarity - in fact only the second time the species has bred in the British Isles - they call the man’s uncle (Brefni O’Rorke), a famous ornithologist. He feels he must inform his colleagues of this stupendous news. Soon, the local village has its hands full trying to keep the birds and their eggs safe from observers, poachers, government bureaucracy and well-wishers in general.

Written by the directors - of whom Miles amusingly portrays a retired army colonel (in unfortunately unconvincing ‘age’ make-up) - Tawny Pipit may have been made only where it was, when it was. It must also be one of the earliest films to have an environmental theme, yet this is tied very much to larger issues. Indeed, the smaller and the bigger are, the movie seems to argue, inextricably linked.

Superficially, Tawny Pipit is a gentle comedy about a village population coming together to preserve something that is worth preserving. There is no question in anyone’s mind that the birds and their nest should be saved. This falls naturally into line with protecting the village from disruptive outsiders who know nothing of country ways, or, if they do, want to use them to exploit the land.

What’s interesting about the village characters is that each shows his or her enthusiasm to the cause in distinct fashions. The colonel thunders about giving the birds fair play, while the vicar is academically vague in his joy over the nest, and the old-timers think of helping the same way they would if confronted with the closure of their pub.

But below the surface - and not far below - Tawny Pipit shows how very lucky Britons were to live in their country. The war against the worst danger Britain had ever faced was continuing at this time, and saving the birds is, in a way, an allegory for saving the country. This is seen more starkly when, on a good-will tour, a Russian soldier (Lucie Mannheim) comes to visit. She is in high spirits, but compares the green fields of England with those in her own country, where the common enemy tramples down the harvest, and from which her parents were taken to a fate unknown. As one exuberant bird-watching army corporal says, perhaps unnecessarily, the tawny pipit and its eggs are “you and me, they’re Britain.”

Also remarkable is that - perhaps less consciously than its other elements - the film shows how free a country Britain was, even in the midst of fighting a war. Government folly - well-meaning but blindly obedient bureaucracy - are skewered, while common sense and the value of ‘going to the top’ are celebrated. It would have been impossible to have achieved such a script in many other countries at the time.

Aside from the bigger picture, the movie is an adequately effective if not fully successful comedy. Its characters, if appearing stereotypical, are likely fairly accurate representations of the time and place. Notable are the village old-timers, who play the village idiots to mislead those they think are egg-stealers,  and the corporal (Stuart Latham) who helps confirm the rarity of the birds’ nesting. Rosamund John winningly demonstrates why she was a popular actress in her day. And that is a very, very young Juliet Mills who interrupts the colonel’s speech.

Tawny Pipit will be too slow for many, too easy-going for many more. But for a pleasing 81 minutes, it depicts an equally pleasing story and setting.