FOREVER AND A DAY

US, 1943, 103 minutes, Black and white.
Reginald Gardiner, Victor Mc Laglen, Arthur Treacher, June Lockhart, Ruth Warrick, Herbert Marshall, C. Aubrey Smith, Edmund Gwenn, Ray Milland, Dame May Witty, Anna Neagle, Claude Rains, Jessie Matthews, Reginald Owen, Ian Hunter, Charles Laughton, Anna Lee, Buster Keaton, Edward Everett Horton, Patric Knowles, June Duprez, Cecil Kellaway, Ida Lupino, Brian Aherne, Merle Oberon, Una O’Connor?, Richard Haydn, Nigel Bruce, Elsa Lanchester, Robert Coote, Roland Young, Gladys Cooper, Robert Cummings, Donald Crisp, Cedric Hardwicke.
Directed by Edmund Goulding, Cedric Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Robert Stevenson, Herbert Wilcox, Rene Clair.

Forever and a Day was a huge morale-boosting film of 1943. Many of the British talent living in Hollywood got together to make this epic of the history of a house in London over the period of one hundred and forty years, from the time of the Napoleonic Wars to the Blitz.

The film is star-studded and had seven directors. The writing credits were also very strong and included such writers as C.S. Forester, James Hilton, Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Isherwood, Frederick Lonsdale, R.C. Sherriff, Donald Ogden Stewart and John Van Druten.

I. The significance of the title, especially in terms of the war effort when this film was made? The tone of the title for the impact of the film?

2. Why was the history of this particular house so interesting for the film? The human interest was understandable for the 40s. Why does the film hold audience attention today?

3. Comment on the quality of the production, the initial remarks about Hollywood combining for the producing the re-creation of London, the historical phases, the stars?

4. How satisfactory was the structure of the film? The contemporary London war-setting, the nature of the flashbacks? their cumulative effect, the comments by Trimble? The finale with the morale-boosting effort?

5. How interesting from later points of view? Is the picture of the mid 20th century? The impact of the re-creation of the war? The suffering, the parson, the people commenting on the war? America's role? The style of the filming, the shelters, the bombs? The morale-boosting for the future, a future based on courage In this particular past?

6. How attractive was the early 19th century period? The selection of the site, the building of the house, the admiral and his family, his ambitions, his benevolence? The contrast with the Pomfrets as bad? Susan and her being rescued? The marriage, the birth of the child, the comfort of the house? Were the characters well portrayed in these sequences or did they just represent personalities?

7. The characterization of Pomfret? As an evil man? Vindictive? The importance of the sequence when he was drunk, with the portrait in the background, his fear? The significance of these sequences?

8. How well did the film make the transition to Dexter Pomfret, Trimble? Mildred and her plan for marriage, the Victorian era, the recession in industry, the influence of the Queen, the comedy and discussion about baths, the sense of prosperity? The enterprise of Mildred and her husband? The comedy with the butterflies? The comedy with Bellamy, the butler? What did this add to the tone of the film?

9. How did this contrast with the late Victorian period? The portrayal of the house, the family, the knighthood, the snobbery? The contrast with Jim Trimble? The role of the maid? The dreams of the United States and immigration? The blend to continue the history of the house?

10. How important for the film was the First World War phase? The house become a boarding-house? Marjorie and her role in the house, a more modern woman? The faded gentility and the cousins from America? The atmosphere of the war (for the Second World War effort)? The Barringers and the awaiting of the hero's arrival, his death? The types of people in the First World War times in the hotel? The style of 1917, behaviour, genteel folk in genteel hotels? The contrast with the Americans? The growth of love? The sense of destiny in the house?

11. What values did the film stand for and how did it communicate them with great human interest? A classic within its morale-boosting limitations?