Spring and Port Wine

Obdurate Rafe Crompton (Mason), an engineer at a Bolton, Lancashire, cotton mill, finds his authority challenged when Hilda (George), the younger of his two daughters, refuses to eat a plate of herring, which he then serves up to her day after day, forcing the battle of wills to breaking point. Bill Naughton's play may have worked on stage, but on screen (in the playwright's own adaptation) it's as inconsequential as an expanded sitcom, and Mason's much too big a star for the material.