Give Us This Day (1949 film)

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Give Us This Day
"Give Us This Day" (1949).jpg
Italian theatrical poster
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Written by Pietro di Donato (novel)
Ben Barzman
John Penn
Hans Székely
Produced by Rod E. Geiger
Starring Sam Wanamaker
Lea Padovani
Kathleen Ryan
Charles Goldner
Cinematography C. M. Pennington-Richards
Edited by John D. Guthridge
Music by Benjamin Frankel
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Eagle-Lion Classics
Parvisfilmi
Gaumont Film Company
Release date
  • 14 October 1949 (1949-10-14)
Running time
120 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$600,000 [1] or £195,000 [2]
Box office£80,000 [2]

Give Us This Day (also known as Salt to the Devil [3] ; U.S. title: Christ in Concrete [4] ) is a 1949 British film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Sam Wanamaker, Lea Padovani and Kathleen Ryan. [3] It was written by Ben Barzman from an adaptation by John Penn of the 1939 novel Christ in Concrete by Pietro Di Donato. The title is taken from the Lord's Prayer.

Contents

Plot

Geremio is an Italian bricklayer living with his family. The film depicts how Geremio and his family endure the struggles of living in Brooklyn during the Great Depression.

Cast

Production

At the time this movie was made, Dmytryk had been blacklisted as a member of the Hollywood Ten. Wanamaker had also been blacklisted. The movie was filmed entirely in London due to this. [5]

Reception

Kine Weekly wrote: "Magnificent, compellingly realistic romantic melodrama, staged in the slums of Brooklyn during the turbulent twenties. ... Sam Wanamaker and Lea Padovani act with their hearts and their heads and put over perfectly timed and consummately natural portrayals as Geremio and Annunziata. Charles Goldner is a revelation as the philosophical Luigi, and Kathleen Ryan is more than adequate in the comparatively small role of Kathleen. The supporting players, like the stars, cannot be faulted. The picture is not only a great love story, but a powerful indictment of the sorry working-class conditions of its times. ... A work of art, as well as an outstanding box-office achievement, it proves that it is no longer necessary to go to Hollywood to make an American picture." [6]

Picture Show wrote: "Here is a memorable though miserable film, strong yet delicate, passionate yet tender, its understanding tinctured with bitterness. Seeing that it was made in England, it is astonishing that the atmosphere and characters of a Brooklyn tenement populated chiefly by poverty-stricken Italian building workers should be so vividly and realistically etched." [7]

The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called it "a film drama of considerable graphicness but of oddly limited power." While praising the movie for its "careful and earnest attempt to capture the hard yet wistful quality of Mr. di Donato's tale", Crowther said that "the spirit and compulsion of this deeply distressing tale of poverty and frustration are absent from the film." [8]

The film was a commercial failure in America. [9]

References

  1. ↑ A. H. WEILER (13 November 1949). "BY WAY OF REPORT: José Ferrer, Man With Many Prospects -- 'Finian's Rainbow' Being Sought". New York Times. p. X5.
  2. 1 2 Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 102. Income is producer's share of receipts.
  3. 1 2 "Give Us This Day". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 May 2025.
  4. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (2009). "Christ in Concrete". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Baseline & All Movie Guide. Archived from the original on 31 December 2009. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Christ in Concrete (1949) – Edward Dmytryk – Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related". AllMovie. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  6. ↑ "Give Us This Day". Kine Weekly . 392 (2216): 17. 20 October 1949. ProQuest   2732601455.
  7. ↑ "Give Us This Day". Picture Show . 53 (1391): 10. 26 November 1949. ProQuest   1879642272.
  8. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (21 December 1949). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ' Give Us This Day,' Film Based on Pietro di Donato Novel, Unveiled at the Rialto". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British Cinema of The 1950s The Decline of Deference. Oxford University Press USA. p. 15.
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