Journey's End (1930 film)
| Journey's End | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | James Whale |
| Produced by | George Pearson |
| Written by | R. C. Sherriff (play) Joseph Moncure March |
| Starring | Colin Clive Ian Maclaren David Manners |
| Cinematography | Benjamin H. Kline |
| Editing by | Claude Berkeley |
| Distributed by | Tiffany Pictures Woolf & Freedman Film Service |
| Release date(s) | April 14, 1930 (UK) April 15, 1930 (US) |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
Journey's End is a 1930 British-American war film directed by James Whale. Based on the play of the same name by R. C. Sherriff, the film tells the story of several British soldiers involved in trench warfare during the First World War. The film, like the play before it, was an enormous critical and commercial success and launched the film careers of Whale and several of its stars.
In 1976 it was remade as Aces High in color with the scenario of the play and 1930 film shifted to the British Royal Flying Corps
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[edit] Plot
On the eve of a battle in 1918, a new officer, Second Lieutenant Raleigh (David Manners), joins Captain Stanhope's (Colin Clive) company in the British trench lines in France. While the two men knew each other at school, Stanhope loves Raleigh's sister. Raleigh sees a changed man, who after three years at the front, is on the verge of a breakdown and has turned to drink. A fellow officer, Lieutenant Osborne (Ian Maclaren) desperately tries to keep Stanhope from cracking. Osborne and Raleigh are selected to lead a raiding party on the German trenches where many soldiers are killed, including Osborne. Although he resents the younger man, when Raleigh is mortally wounded, the commander faces a desperate time, friendless and grief-stricken, he prepares to face another furious enemy attack.
[edit] Cast
- Colin Clive – Capt. Denis Stanhope
- Ian Maclaren – Lt. Osborne
- David Manners – 2nd Lt. Raleigh
- Billy Bevan – 2nd Lt. Trotter
- Anthony Bushell – 2nd Lt. Hibbert
- Robert Adair – Capt. Hardy
- Charles K. Gerrard – Pvt. Mason
- Tom Whiteley – Sergeant Major
- Jack Pitcairn – Colonel
- Werner Klingler – German prisoner
- Gil Perkins – Sgt. Cox
- Leslie Sketchley – Cpl. Ross
[edit] Production
When Howard Hughes made the decision to turn Hell's Angels (film) into a talkie, he hired a then-unknown James Whale, who had just arrived in Hollywood following a successful turn directing the play Journey's End in London and on Broadway, to direct the talking sequences; it was Whale's film debut, and arguably prepared him for the later success he would have with the feature version of Journey's End, Waterloo Bridge, and, most famously, the 1931 version of Frankenstein. Unhappy with the script, Whale brought in Joseph Moncure March to re-write it. Hughes later gave March the Luger pistol used in the famous execution scene of the film's ending.[1]
Due to the delay while Hughes tinkered with the flying scenes in Hell's Angels, Whale managed to entirely shoot his film adaptation of Journey's End and have it come out a month before Hell's Angels was released. The gap between completion of the dialogue scenes and completion of the aerial combat stunts allowed Whale to be paid, sail back to England, and begin work on the subsequent project, making Whale's actual (albeit uncredited) cinema debut, his "second" film to be released.
[edit] References
- Notes
- ^ Curtis 1998, p. 86.
- Bibliography
- Curtis, James. James Whale: A New World of Gods and Monsters. Boston: Faber and Faber,1998. ISBN 0-57119-285-8.
- Dolan, Edward F. Jr. Hollywood Goes to War. London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
- Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
- Orriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN 0-9613088-0-X.
- Osborne, Robert. 65 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards London: Abbeville Press, 1994. ISBN 1-55859-715-8.
- "Production of 'Hell's Angels' Cost the Lives of Three Aviators." Syracuse Herald, December 28, 1930, p. 59.
- Robertson, Patrick. Film Facts. New York: Billboard Books, 2001. ISBN 0-82307-943-0.
[edit] External links
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