Stricken Peninsula

Stricken Peninsula
Directed by	Paul Fletcher
Narrated by	William Holt
Music by	Muir Mathieson
Production company	Army Film Unit
Release date	1945 (1945)
Running time	13 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Stricken Peninsula is a 1945 British short propaganda film directed by Paul Fletcher and narrated by William Holt. ^{[1] [2]} It was made by the Army Film Unit and the British Ministry of Information for the Department of Psychological Warfare to highlight the British Army's reconstruction work in southern Italy in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

Cast

• William Holt as narrator

Score

A score for the film was composed by the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, but is now lost. A reconstructed score arranged by Philip Lane and performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2016. ^{[3] [4]}

The Documentary News Letter (DNL) reserved their criticism for Vaughan Williams's score feeling that it was "execrable" and that "One is conscious only of obtrusive and disagreeable noise intruding between the audience and a moving story". This was the last of the British propaganda films that Vaughan Williams scored. Jeffrey Richards in his 1997 book Films and National British Identity wrote that Vaughan Williams's score could "stand on its own" as "an atmospheric and economical but musically sophisticated and multi-layered evocation of the various facets of post-war reconstruction". ^[5]

Reception

A contemporaneous review of the film by the DNL praised it as "salutary and excellent. The realities of the war's aftermath presented with considerable artistry". ^[5]

In The Monthly Film Bulletin the Background Films Committee wrote: "This joint Army Film Unit and M.O.I. film gives a vivid picture of war's aftermath. Though it is in some ways out of date now, it will unhappily be many years before normal conditions return, and it is well that we should be reminded of Italy's sufferings and difficulties. The music by Vaughan Williams is often discordant; but presumably it is deliberately so, in tune with the grim seenes which it accompanies. It would not be a very useful film for Adult Groups, Youth Clubs or Schools, save in connection with a discussion on war and its disastrous effects." ^[6]

References

1. "Stricken Peninsula". Imperial War Museum - Stricken Peninsula. Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
2. Michael Kennedy (1964). The works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780193154100.
3. "Afternoon on 3 - Wednesday 9 March". BBC Radio 3 - Afternoon on 3. BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
4. "Stricken Peninsula (1945)". BFI database. British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016.
5. Jeffrey Richards (15 September 1997). Films and British National Identity: From Dickens to Dad's Army. Manchester University Press. ISBN   978-0-7190-4743-5.
6. "Stricken Peninsula". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 13 (145): 40. 1 January 1946. ProQuest   1305806883.

External links

• Stricken Peninsula at IMDb
• Watch Stricken Peninsula at the Imperial War Museum