[[Norman Priggen]]"},"writer":{"wt":"[[Evan Jones (writer)|Evan Jones]] (screenplay)
based on the play ''Hamp'' (1964) by John Wilson and the novel ''Return to the Wood'' (1955) by [[James Lansdale Hodson]]"},"image":{"wt":"File:KingandCountry.Bogarde.png"},"caption":{"wt":"Theatrical release poster"},"music":{"wt":"[[Larry Adler]]"},"cinematography":{"wt":"[[Denys Coop]]"},"editing":{"wt":"[[Reginald Mills]]"},"starring":{"wt":"[[Dirk Bogarde]]
[[Tom Courtenay]]
[[Leo McKern]]
[[Barry Foster (actor)|Barry Foster]]"},"studio":{"wt":"BHE Films (UK)
Landau/Unger (US)"},"distributor":{"wt":"[[Associated British Picture Corporation|Warner-Pathé]] (UK)
[[Monogram Pictures|Allied Artists]] (US)"},"released":{"wt":"{{Film date|1964|09| |[[Venice Film Festival]]}}"},"runtime":{"wt":"88 min."},"budget":{"wt":"£85,785Chapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 360Losey on 'broken promises'\nBarker, Dennis. The Guardian 1 Aug 1973: 6.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/josephloseyreven00caut/page/6/mode/1up?q=budget| title=Joseph Losey|last=Caute|first= David|year=1994 |publisher=Oxford University Press|page=144| isbn=978-0-19-506410-0}}"},"gross":{"wt":"£117,358Caute p 146"},"country":{"wt":"United Kingdom"},"language":{"wt":"English"}},"i":0}}]}" id="mwCQ">1964 British film
King and Country | |
---|---|
Directed by | Joseph Losey |
Written by | Evan Jones (screenplay) based on the play Hamp (1964) by John Wilson and the novel Return to the Wood (1955) by James Lansdale Hodson |
Produced by | Joseph Losey Norman Priggen |
Starring | Dirk Bogarde Tom Courtenay Leo McKern Barry Foster |
Cinematography | Denys Coop |
Edited by | Reginald Mills |
Music by | Larry Adler |
Production companies | BHE Films (UK) Landau/Unger (US) |
Distributed by | Warner-Pathé (UK) Allied Artists (US) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 min. |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £85,785 [1] [2] [3] |
Box office | £117,358 [4] |
King and Country is a 1964 British war film directed by Joseph Losey, shot in black and white, and starring Dirk Bogarde and Tom Courtenay. [5] The film was adapted for the screen by British screenwriter Evan Jones based on the play Hamp by John Wilson [6] and a 1955 novel by James Lansdale Hodson. [7] [8]
During the First World War in 1917, in the British trenches at Passchendaele, an army private, Arthur Hamp (Tom Courtenay) is accused of desertion. He is to be defended at his trial by Captain Hargreaves (Dirk Bogarde). Hamp had been a volunteer at the outbreak of the war and was the sole survivor of his company, but then decided to "go for a walk"; he had contemplated walking to his home in London but after more than 24 hours on the road, he is picked up by the Military Police and sent back to his unit to face court-martial for desertion.
Hargreaves is initially impatient with the simple-minded Hamp, but comes to identify with his plight. Following testimony from an unsympathetic doctor (Leo McKern) (whose solution to all ailments is to prescribe laxatives), Hargreaves is unable to persuade the court to consider the possibility that Hamp may have been suffering from shell shock. He is found guilty, but the court's recommendation for mercy is overruled by higher command, who wish to make an example of Hamp to bolster morale in his division. He is shot by firing squad, but as he is not killed outright Hargreaves has to finish him off with a revolver. His family are informed that he has been killed in action. [9] [10]
The novel had been filmed for Australian TV in 1962 as The Case of Private Hamp .
The film was re-released by American International Pictures (AIP) in 1966 and developed a cult following. However in 1973 Losey said that records had the film recording a loss. [2]
The New York Times called it "an impressive achievement," noting "As usual, Mr. Losey has drawn the best from his actors," and concluding that "Some of its scenes are so strong they shock. Those who can take it will find it a shattering experience." [11]
King and Country is based on an actual incident during World War I written by James Lansdale Hodson, a defense attorney in the court-martial of army deserter Private Arthur Hemp. [12] The film is set during a global conflict in which 750,000 British soldiers alone perished. Tens-of-thousands of allegations against military personnel for misbehavior were issued, 3,000 of which ended in sentences of death; of these, over 300 were carried out. [13]
A personal drama in which no combat appears, King and Country is an examination of how injustice is rationalized by a class-conscious officer corps and acted upon in the interests of military discipline and morale. [14] [15]
The thematic climax of the film occurs when the officer who defended the soldier administers the coup de grâce when the demoralized members of the firing squad fail to kill the deserter. Joseph Losey, in an interview with Michel Ciment remarked:
The picture is the personal relationship between that officer and that poor private deserter…So when that pistol, that coup-de-grace, has to be fired at the end, in a sense that officer is ending his own life as well as the boy’s. [16]
Film historians James Palmer and Michael Riley note that King and Country “indicts in the most forceful terms the false values that betrayed both men…” [17] [18]
Tom Courtenay received the award for the Best Actor for his role as Hamp at the 1964 Venice Film Festival, where the film was also nominated for the Golden Lion. [19] The film was nominated for four 1965 BAFTA awards, including Best Film. [20]
Joseph Walton Losey III was an American theatre and film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950s, he moved to Europe where he made the remainder of his films, mostly in the United Kingdom. Among the most critically and commercially successful were the films with screenplays by Harold Pinter: The Servant (1963) and The Go-Between (1971).
Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as Doctor in the House (1954) for the Rank Organisation, he later acted in art house films, evolving from "heartthrob to icon of edginess".
Sir Thomas Daniel Courtenay is an English actor. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he achieved prominence in the 1960s as part of actors of the British New Wave. Courtenay has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Silver Bear, and the Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Emmy Award. He was knighted for his services to cinema and theatre in the 2001 New Year Honours.
Accident is a 1967 British drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Written by Harold Pinter, it is an adaptation of the 1965 novel Accident by Nicholas Mosley. It is the second of three Losey–Pinter collaborations; the others being The Servant (1963) and The Go-Between (1971). At the 1967 Cannes Film Festival, Accident won the Grand Prix Spécial du Jury award. It also won the Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.
The Servant is a 1963 British drama film directed by Joseph Losey. It was written by Harold Pinter, who adapted Robin Maugham's 1948 novella of the same name. The film stars Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig and James Fox.
Reginald Mills was a British film editor and one-time film director with more than thirty feature film credits. Among his prominent films are The Red Shoes (1948), for which he received his only Academy Award nomination, The Servant (1963), and Romeo and Juliet (1968).
Boom! is a 1968 British drama film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Noël Coward. It was adapted by Tennessee Williams from his own play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore.
The Go-Between is a 1971 British historical drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay by Harold Pinter is an adaptation of the 1953 novel The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard.
The Criminal is a 1960 British neo-noir crime film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Stanley Baker, Sam Wanamaker, Grégoire Aslan, Jill Bennett, and Margit Saad. Baker plays Johnny Bannion, a recently-paroled gangster who is sent back to prison after robbing a racetrack, with both the authorities and the criminal underworld looking for the money.
A Doll's House is a 1973 drama film directed by Joseph Losey, based on the 1879 play A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. It stars Jane Fonda in the role of Nora Helmer and David Warner as her domineering husband, Torvald.
Eva, released in the United Kingdom as Eve, and in the United States as The Devil’s Woman a 1962 Italian-French co-production drama film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, and Virna Lisi. Its screenplay is adapted from James Hadley Chase's 1945 novel Eve.
The Damned is a 1962 British science fiction horror film directed by Joseph Losey and starring Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors and Oliver Reed. The screenplay was by Evan Jones, based on H. L. Lawrence's 1960 novel The Children of Light. It was a Hammer Film production.
Figures in a Landscape is a 1970 British film directed by Joseph Losey and written by star Robert Shaw, based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Barry England.
The Sleeping Tiger is a 1954 British film noir directed by Joseph Losey and starring Alexis Smith, Dirk Bogarde and Alexander Knox. It was Losey's first British feature, which he directed under the pseudonym of Victor Hanbury due to being blacklisted in the McCarthy Era. It was shot at Walton Studios and on location in London. The film's sets were designed by the art director John Stoll. It was released by Anglo-Amalgamated while in America it was distributed by Astor Pictures.
The 17th British Academy Film Awards, given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 1964, honoured the best films of 1963.
Hot Enough for June is a 1964 British spy comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas, and starring Dirk Bogarde with Sylva Koscina in her English film debut, Robert Morley and Leo McKern. It is based on the 1960 novel The Night of Wenceslas by Lionel Davidson. The film was cut by twenty minutes and retitled Agent 8+3⁄4 for the US release by the American distributor Continental Distributing.
The Gypsy and the Gentleman is a 1958 British costume drama film directed by Joseph Losey. It stars Melina Mercouri and Keith Michell.
James Lansdale Hodson OBE (1891–1956) was a British novelist, scriptwriter and journalist. He was a war correspondent and northern editor of the Daily Mail.
The Case of Private Hamp is a 1962 Australian television film which aired on the ABC. Despite the wiping of the era, a copy of the presentation exists as a kinescope recording.
Peter Mullins is a former art director. He was active in British cinema and television production from the 1940s until the 1970s. He was married to the actress Jennifer Jayne.