Forever and a Day

In 1943, while the War still raged, an incredible assortment of British performers living in Hollywood got together to make a morale booster of a movie to top all the others. Joining in the production was a first class collection of producers, directors & writers. Although seldom viewed now, FOREVER AND A DAY is a wonderful film, absolutely not to be missed.

The story is of 140 years in the life of a London house, right up to the Blitz, and of the two families - sometimes feuding, sometimes merging - that called it home. Its endurance through history's onslaughts becomes a symbol of the British Nation's resolve to fight anything Hitler could throw against them.

A partial listing of the cast illustrates its richness: Claude Rains, Ida Lupino, Merle Oberon, Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Dame May Whitty, Dame Gladys Cooper, Dame Anna Neagle, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Sir C. Aubrey Smith & Buster Keaton. Together, with many others, they combine to serve up cracking good entertainment.

Boasting a cast of 78 movie stars, performers from every corner banded together for the troops in Forever and a Day, another "variety show" movie that was popular during WWII. Join Dame May Whitty, Edmund Gwenn, Arthur Treacher, Victor McLaglen, Herbert Marshall, C. Aubrey Smith, Buster Keaton, Gene Lockhart, Reginald Owen, Halliwell Hobbs, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Nigel Bruce, Una O'Connor, Richard Hayden, Brian Aherne, Claude Rains, Ray Milland, Edward Everett Horton, Patric Knowles, June Duprez, Cecil Kellaway Ida Lupino, Eric Blore, Merle Oberon, Queenie Leopard, Jessie Matthews, Gladys Cooper, Robert Cummings, Donald Crisp as they act out a script contributed to by 22 writers, and directed and produced by seven skilled men.

In one of his earlier films, Kent Smith stars as a young man interested in the history of an old British house. Told through vignettes, the house's owners and ancestors are explained. This has an entirely different feel than the usual "variety show" movies from the time period. There isn't song after dance after skit; instead, it's dramatic British scene after mildly comical British scene after neutral British scene. Unless you can keep up with the different accents and class distinctions and tongue-in-cheek about modern conveniences like bathtubs and motor cars, you probably won't like this one. It is fun to see Charles Laughton playing a butler and Brian Aherne trying out for Cary Grant's part in None But the Lonely Heart, though.

This grand 1943 film once again proved that the British were at their best when they kept that stiff upper lip.

This magnificent piece tells the story of a house from its inception in England in 1804 until the German blitzkrieg circa 1940.

Nothing was spared in this provocative film regarding the cast. Practically everyone known in British films is in it and they all shine.

As two people are dickering in selling the house, its rich history is brought back in a series of flashbacks. We go back to the Napoleonic Era and trace the house to Queen Victoria's era, World War 1 and eventually the second world war.

The film provides plenty of heartbreak and sadness but is a definite testament of faith to the British people in the tradition of Mrs. Miniver.

This is the saga of a house handed down from generation to generation and the stories of each of the owners. The episodes range from good to better-than-good, but the value here is in the all-star cast; virtually any famous or near-famous British star from the 30's and 40's is in this picture, and even a few 'Yanks'. The nominal stars are Kent Smith and Ruth Warrick, she the present (1942) tenant. He stops in to sell it, and they swap stories about the different owners throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

In all, seven directors and 21 writers are given credit for working on the film, as well as 79 actors and actresses. It is a "sentimental story with some amusing and affecting passages, but as the story is somewhat hackneyed it is well-served by some superb performances" (Bosley Crowther, NY Times, 3/43). But I think to arrive at the most satisfactory effect one should necessarily be from the Sceptered Isle. I am a 'Yank' and didn't get that effect, but it was still good entertainment. It was shown at the Columbus,O. Cinevent, 5/12.

This was one unusual project especially for a relatively minor major studio like RKO. In Forever And A Day they assembled a whole bunch of players from the Hollywood British colony, imported a couple like Anna Neagle and Jessie Matthews who did their work across the pond and put them all in one film that was directed by a half dozen directors or so. That many hands in the creation usually is a recipe for disaster. Usually that spells incoherent, but in the case of Forever And A Day it's just ponderous.

Kent Smith and Ruth Warrick meet during the blitz, she owns a house he'd like to buy. It turns out he's distantly related to Warrick. The house was built by their common ancestor C. Aubrey Smith who was a retired admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. He built the place in an area that was rural then, London hadn't spread out that far. Warrick then starts telling the story, warts and all, of the house and the generations who lived there.

I'm amazed the film was as good as it was. Still the story is slow moving and definitely parts are better than the whole. The only villain in the piece is really Claude Rains who was an ancestor, but a conniving schemer who had his ward stolen from him by Ray Milland as he was about to make a profitable match for her. A lot of women really were chattel in 1804. Rains is never bad in anything.

Charles Laughton had a small role as a butler to one of the generations that lived in the house. Watch Laughton in this tiny role, it's one of the best examples of a consummate actor making something out of a nothing role.

Forever And A Day is interesting, but that's the best I can say for it. It was good wartime propaganda, it's not the kind of film to ever be remade. If it is, hopefully with one good director and one creative vision.