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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Looking for films featuring World War I
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 09-08-2003 07:00 AM
The 1928 silent version was in fact called Dawn, starring Sybil Thorndike. Herbert Wilcox remade it in 1939 as Nurse Edith Cavell with his wife (Anna Neagle) as Edith.
There is an interesting story about the first version. When he heard that the film was being produced, the German ambassador in London hit the roof and complained to the Foreign Office. This being in the aftermath of the Locarno treaties and in the context of the post-Versailles 'don't let's be beastly to the Germans' atmosphere, the Foreign Office went straight to the Home Office which in turn applied behind-the-scenes pressure on the British Board of Film Censors to ban it. Wilcox responded by going to the press, and ensured that the high-profile row which ensued (the coverage was eerily similar to the way the news media covered the 11 September 'burying bad news' email at the start of last year) effectively prevented any possibility of Dawn being suppressed.
In the aftermath of this episode the Home Office encouraged the BBFC to introduce script vetting. Producers were encouraged to submit their scripts to the BBFC for free 'advice' on what would and wouldn't be allowed. The idea was to see off politically controversial films before they even went in front of the camera, a system which operated with ruthless efficiency throughout the 1930s. Many of the script vetting report files can be seen at the British Film Institute library in London (though many others were destroyed in a fire at the BBFC's Soho Square HQ in 1941) and they make scary reading: projects which were banned before the production stage include a 1936 version of I Claudius starring Charles Laughton (hints of homosexuality too explicit) and a 1937 film of Lawrence of Arabia (because Britain's League of Nations mandated role in Palestine made the revolt in the desert a little bit of a sore point).
When WWII broke out in 1939 the BBFC was instantly sidelined by the newly-formed Ministry of Information, which was of course encouraging anti-German propaganda, hence the remake.
Suggested Reading: The Age of the Dream Palace by Jeffrey Richards, which discusses the content control system of the 1930s, and The British Board of Film Censors by James Robertson, which covers the Dawn episode (currently out of print, unfortunately).
A book published at the time, The Censor, The Drama and the FIlm by Dorothy Knowles (London, 1932), makes fascinating reading. The author accuses the government of applying double standards, allowing political expression in 'legitimate' theatre which it was cracking down on in the cinema, her argument being that the powers that be were less worried about what middle-class theatregoers saw than working class film audiences. It's incredibly difficult to get hold of, though. When copies do appear in places like The Cinema Bookshop, even dog-eared ones change hands for £50 plus.
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