This Week of Grace

This Week of Grace is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Gracie Fields, Henry Kendall and John Stuart. A poor, unemployed woman is made housekeeper at the estate of a wealthy duchess. It was promoted with the tagline "Cinderella in modern dress". It is notable for its songs written by Harry Parr-Davies, including "My Lucky Day" and "Happy Ending".

Grace Milroy loses her job working at a factory. However, through a strange set of circumstances, she is taken on as housekeeper at the nearby Swinford Castle the home of the eccentric Duchess of Swinford. She is initially cold received by the other staff but she soon wins them over with her personality and hard work. While working there she falls in love with the Duchess' nephew, Viscount Swinford and eventually marries him. Later when she wrongly believes him to have married her under the mistaken impression she is rich she leaves him and goes to take a job on the stage working in the chorus line. Eventually the misunderstanding is cleared up and the couple reconcile.

The film was made by Twickenham Studios following a dispute between Radio Pictures, who owned the rights to Fields, and Associated Talking Pictures (ATP) who had previously made her films. It was part of an attempt by Twickenham to move away from making Quota quickies towards more high-budget quality productions a strategy that continued until the bankcruptcy of its owner Julius Hagen. As the sound stage at Twickenham was already booked, filming was done at Ealing Studios, ironically owned by ATP.