An Englishman's Home
An Englishman's Home is a threat-of-invasion play by Guy du Maurier, first produced in 1909. The title is a reference to the expression "an Englishman's home is his castle".
Play
An Englishman's Home caused a sensation in London when it appeared anonymously, under the name "A Patriot", in 1909.[1] It first played at Wyndham's Theatre on 27 January[2] and went on to be a long-running success. It is now considered a typical example of the invasion literature popular at the time.[3] The play was produced by Guy's brother Gerald du Maurier, possibly without his knowledge and with some assistance from J. M. Barrie.[4] The story concerns an attack on England by an unnamed foreign power, generally assumed to represent Germany. The home of an ordinary middle-class family is besieged by soldiers, and the play climaxes with the father shooting an enemy officer and subsequently being executed.[5] The play stressed Britain's unpreparedness for attack, and has been credited with boosting recruitment to the Territorial Army in the years immediately before World War I.[6][7] The play was revived on stage in May 1939 at London's Prince's Theatre.[8] It influenced niece Daphne du Maurier's 1952 novelette The Birds,[9] which was made into a movie directed by Alfred Hitchock.
Film
1914 Film
In 1914, the play was made into a silent film directed by Ernest Batley.[10][11]
1939 Film
| An Englishman's Home | |
|---|---|
| Starring | Edmund Gwenn |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ₤100,000[12] |
Du Maurier's play was also the basis for the 1939 British drama film of the same name directed by Albert de Courville and starring Edmund Gwenn, Mary Maguire and Paul Henreid.[13] A German spy is despatched to Britain to search out targets for a planned invasion.[14] The film, which was also known as "Mad Men of Europe", was released in the USA in June 1940.[15]
It was the first film with a wartime setting to be shown in London since the war began.[12]
Cast
- Edmund Gwenn ... Tom Brown
- Mary Maguire ... Betty Brown
- Paul Henreid ... Victor Brandt
- Carl Jaffe ... Martin
- Norah Howard ... Maggie
- Geoffrey Toone ... Peter Templeton
- Richard Ainley ... Geoffrey Brown
- Desmond Tester ... Billy Brown
- Meinhart Maur ... Waldo
- Mavis Villiers ... Dolly
- Mark Lester ... Uncle Ben
- John Wood ... Jimmy
Notes
- ↑ Ticknor 1922
- ↑ MacKenzie 1992
- ↑ Fussell 1998
- ↑ Eby 1987
- ↑ Ticknor 1922
- ↑ MacKenzie 1992
- ↑ Ticknor 1922
- ↑ Cooper 2012, Chapter 2
- ↑ Auerbach 2002
- ↑ IMDB: An Englishman's Home
- ↑ Cooper 2012, Chapter 2
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ The Spectator, 5 October 1939
- ↑ BFI Film & TV Database
- ↑ IMDB: Mad Men of Europe
References
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External links
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