Pastor Hall
- 27 May 1940 (1940-05-27) (London)
Pastor Hall is a 1940 British drama film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Nova Pilbeam, Marius Goring, Seymour Hicks and Bernard Miles.[3] The film is based on the play of the same title by German author Ernst Toller who had lived as an emigrant in the United States until his suicide in 1939.[4] The U.S. version of the film opened with a prologue by Eleanor Roosevelt denouncing the Nazis, and her son James Roosevelt presented[further explanation needed] the film in the US through United Artists.[5]
Plot
The film was based on the true story of the German pastor Martin Niemöller who was sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticizing the Nazi Party. In the 1930s, a small German village, Altdorf, is taken over by a platoon of stormtroopers loyal to Hitler. The SS go about teaching and enforcing 'The New Order' but the pastor, a kind and gentle man, will not be intimidated. While some villagers join the Nazi Party avidly, and some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life, the pastor takes his convictions to the pulpit. Because of his criticism of the Nazis, the pastor is sent to Dachau.
Cast
- Wilfred Lawson as Pastor Frederick Hall
- Nova Pilbeam as Christine Hall
- Seymour Hicks as General von Grotjahn
- Marius Goring as Fritz Gerte
- Brian Worth as Werner von Grotjahn
- Percy Walsh as Herr Veit
- Lina Barrie as Lina Veit
- Eliot Makeham as Pippermann
- Peter Cotes as Erwin Kohn
- Edmund Willard as Freundlich
- Hay Petrie as Nazi Pastor
- Bernard Miles as Heinrich Degan
- Manning Whiley as Vogel
- J. Fisher White as Johann Herder
- Barbara Gott as Frau Kemp
Critical reception
The New York Times reviewer wrote that "not until Pastor Hall opened last night at the Globe has any film come so close to the naked spiritual issues involved in the present conflict or presented them in terms so moving. If it is propaganda, it is also more...In its production the film is mechanically inferior. The sound track is uneven, the lighting occasionally bad. But in its performances it has been well endowed. Much of the film's dignity and cumulative emotion comes from the fine performance of Wilfrid Lawson as the pastor."[6] TV Guide called the film "far less heavy-handed than most wartime films Hollywood cranked out after Pearl Harbor."[5]
References
- ^ Alix-Nicolaï, Florian (2015). "Exile Drama: The Translation of Ernst Toller's Pastor Hall (1939)". Translation and Literature. 24 (2): 190–202. doi:10.3366/tal.2015.0201.
- ^ "TWIN PRODUCERS". Cairns Post. No. 13, 838. Queensland, Australia. 10 July 1946. p. 6. Retrieved 13 September 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ David Parkinson. "Pastor Hall". RadioTimes.
- ^ "Pastor Hall (1941)". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
- ^ a b "Pastor Hall". TVGuide.com.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (3 September 2021). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Brigham Young--Frontiersman' Opens at the Roxy --'Pastor Hall,' at the Globe". The New York Times.
External links
- Pastor Hall at IMDb
- v
- t
- e
- Seven Days to Noon (1950)
- Seagulls Over Sorrento (1954)
- Suspect (1960)
- Heavens Above! (1963)
- Journey Together (1945)
- Brighton Rock (1948)
- The Magic Box (1951)
- Private's Progress (1956)
- Lucky Jim (1957)
- I'm All Right Jack (1959)
- Rotten to the Core (1965)
- Trunk Crime (1939)
- Inquest (1939)
- Pastor Hall (1940)
- Thunder Rock (1942)
- Burma Victory (1945)
- Fame Is the Spur (1947)
- The Guinea Pig (1948)
- High Treason (1951)
- Sailor of the King (1953)
- Josephine and Men (1955)
- Run for the Sun (1956)
- Brothers in Law (1957)
- Happy Is the Bride (1958)
- Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959)
- A French Mistress (1960)
- The Family Way (1966)
- Twisted Nerve (1968)
- There's a Girl in My Soup (1970)
- Soft Beds, Hard Battles (1974)
- The Last Word (1979)
This article related to a British film of the 1940s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e