The Dawn (film)

Last updated

The Dawn
The Dawn (film) poster.jpg
Handpainted poster from County Donegal
Directed byTom Cooper
Written byTom Cooper
D.A. Moriarty
Donal O'Cahill
Produced byTom Cooper
StarringTom Cooper
Donal O'Cahill
Eileen Davis
Brian O'Sullivan
James Gleeson
Gerry O'Mahony
Bill Murphy
Marion O'Connell
Music byPat Crowley's Dance Band
Production
company
Hibernia Pictures
Release date
  • 19 January 1936 (19 January 1936)
Running time
89 minutes
Country Irish Free State
LanguageEnglish

The Dawn is a 1936 film made in the Irish Free State, directed and produced by Tom Cooper, who also co-wrote and acted in the film. Set during the Irish War of Independence, it was the first indigenous sound production made in Ireland. It was released in the United States under the title Dawn Over Ireland. [1] [2]

Contents

Production

The Dawn was filmed by Killarney garage owner Tom Cooper in 1934 and 1935. The cast comprised 250 amateur actors from the local area, many of them Irish Republican Army veterans. [3]

Plot

In 1866, in the runup to the Fenian Rising, Brian Malone was falsely denounced as an informer. In 1919, his grandson of the same name aims to clear the family name by serving in the IRA.

Reception

The Irish Times correspondent wrote, "The Dawn, in spite of various crudities, is as thrilling a show as ever I want to witness, and its amateur cast gives it a freshness which is all too rare." It was contrasted with Ourselves Alone , which had portrayed "clean-limbed police" with the IRA men shown as "tough hombres"; The Dawn, on the other hand, depicted the Black and Tans as "too scoundrelly for words" and was liable to make Unionist viewers squirm. [4]

Cooper received an award from Cork Film Festival in the late 1970s.

An original 35 mm print is stored in the British Film Institute; it was digitised and restored in 2016. [5] Prints are also held by RTÉ and the Irish Film Institute.

Related Research Articles

<i>Dawn of the Dead</i> (1978 film) 1978 zombie horror film by George A. Romero

Dawn of the Dead  is a 1978 zombie horror film written, directed, and edited by George A. Romero, and produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. An American-Italian international co-production, it is the second film in Romero's series of zombie films, and though it contains no characters or settings from the preceding film Night of the Living Dead (1968), it shows the larger-scale effects of a zombie apocalypse on society. In the film, a phenomenon of unidentified origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh. David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross star as survivors of the outbreak who barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall amid mass hysteria.

<i>Things to Come</i> 1936 British film by William Cameron Menzies

Things to Come is a 1936 British science fiction film produced by Alexander Korda, directed by William Cameron Menzies, and written by H. G. Wells. The film stars Raymond Massey, Edward Chapman, Ralph Richardson, Margaretta Scott, Cedric Hardwicke, Maurice Braddell, Sophie Stewart, Derrick De Marney, and Ann Todd.

<i>The Irish Times</i> Daily newspaper in Ireland

The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. The Irish Times is Ireland's leading newspaper. It is considered a newspaper of record for Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Bancroft (actor)</span> American actor (1882–1956)

George Bancroft was an American film actor, whose career spanned seventeen years from 1925 to 1942. He was cast in many notable films alongside major film stars throughout his Hollywood years.

<i>Odd Man Out</i> 1947 film by Carol Reed

Odd Man Out is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade police in the aftermath of a robbery. It is based on the 1945 novel of the same name by F. L. Green.

<i>The Riordans</i> Irish TV series or program

The Riordans was the second Irish television drama serial made by Raidio Telefís Éireann. It ran from 1965 to 1979 and was set in the fictional townland of Leestown in County Kilkenny. Its location filming with Outside Broadcast Units, rather than using only TV studios, broke the mould of broadcasting in the soap opera genre and inspired the creation of its British equivalent, Emmerdale Farm by Yorkshire Television in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Máirtín Ó Cadhain</span> Irish writer (1906–1970)

Máirtín Ó Cadhain was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century. Perhaps best known for his 1949 novel Cré na Cille, Ó Cadhain played a key role in reintroducing literary modernism into modern literature in Irish, where it had been dormant since the 1916 execution of Patrick Pearse. Politically, Ó Cadhain was an Irish republican and anti-clerical Marxist, who promoted the Athghabháil na hÉireann, . Ó Cadhain was also a member of the post-Civil War Irish Republican Army and was interned by the Irish Army in the Curragh Camp with Brendan Behan and many other IRA members during the Emergency.

<i>Our Gang</i> American series of comedy short films

Our Gang is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the producer of the Laurel and Hardy films, Our Gang shorts were produced from 1922 to 1944, spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of American cinema. Our Gang is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way; Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children, rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. The series also broke new ground by portraying white and black children interacting as equals during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in the United States.

Risteárd Cooper is an Irish actor, comedian, singer and writer and is one third of comedy trio Après Match.

<i>Dementia 13</i> 1963 film by Francis Ford Coppola

Dementia 13, known in the United Kingdom as The Haunted and the Hunted, is a 1963 independently made black-and-white horror-thriller film produced by Roger Corman, and written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola in his feature film directorial debut. The film stars William Campbell and Luana Anders with Bart Patton, Mary Mitchell, and Patrick Magee. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures during the fall of 1963 as the bottom half of a double feature with Corman's X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes.

Eoghan Harris is an Irish journalist, columnist, director, and former politician. He has held posts in various and diverse political parties. He was a leading theoretician in the Marxist-Leninist Workers' Party. Harris was a fierce critic of Provisional Sinn Féin, from which they had split, and became an opponent of Irish republicanism. For much of the Troubles, from the 1970s until the 1990s, Harris worked in Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) and was influential in shaping the current affairs output of Ireland's national broadcaster. Later he began writing for the Sunday Independent newspaper.

John Kelly was an Irish republican politician in Northern Ireland. He joined the Irish Republican Army in the 1950s, and was a founder member and a leader of the Provisional Irish Republican Army in the early 1970s.

<i>Irish Destiny</i> 1926 film

Irish Destiny is a 1926 film made in the Irish Free State, directed by George Dewhurst and written by Isaac Eppel to mark the tenth anniversary of the Easter Rising. A cut version was released in Britain, entitled An Irish Mother.

<i>Pure Mule</i> Irish TV series or program

Pure Mule was an Irish six-part drama mini-series aimed at a young audience and broadcast on RTÉ Two as part of RTÉ's autumn schedule in 2005, shot and screened in 2004–2005 in County Offaly.

<i>Design for Living</i> (film) 1933 American film

Design for Living is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch from a screenplay by Ben Hecht, based on the 1932 play of the same name by Noël Coward. Starring Fredric March, Gary Cooper, and Miriam Hopkins, the film is about a woman who cannot decide between two men who love her, and the trio agree to try living together in a platonic friendly relationship.

<i>Sally in Our Alley</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Sally in Our Alley is a 1931 British romantic comedy drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring Gracie Fields, Ian Hunter, and Florence Desmond. It is based on the 1923 West End play The Likes of Her by Charles McEvoy.

<i>Oh, Kay!</i> (film) 1928 film

Oh, Kay! is a 1928 silent film produced by John McCormick and distributed by First National Pictures. McCormick's wife Colleen Moore starred and Mervyn LeRoy directed the film. It is based on the 1926 musical Oh, Kay!, which had music by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse.

Dear Sarah is a 1990 made-for-television film about Giuseppe Conlon who was wrongfully sentenced to twelve years imprisonment after being implicated as one of the Maguire Seven during the 1970s. The film was produced by Raidió Teilifís Éireann, directed by Frank Cvitanovich and written by Tom McGurk. It starred Stella McCusker, Barry McGovern and Paddy Rocks, and was aired in 1990 by RTÉ in Ireland and on the ITV Network in the United Kingdom.

<i>Rebellion</i> (miniseries) Irish drama serial

Rebellion is a 2016 historical drama television serial written and created by Colin Teevan for RTÉ. The series is a dramatisation of the events surrounding the 1916 Easter Rising. The story is told through the perspective of a group of fictional characters who live through the political events. The series was produced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. The ensemble cast includes Charlie Murphy, Ruth Bradley, Sarah Greene, Brian Gleeson, Niamh Cusack, Michelle Fairley and Ian McElhinney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danielle Galligan</span> Irish actress, theatre maker, and poet (born 1992)

Danielle Galligan is an Irish actress, theatre maker, and poet. On television, she is known for her roles in the Netflix series Shadow and Bone (2021–2023) and the RTÉ series Obituary (2023). Her films include Lakelands (2022).

References

  1. "Irish Film & TV Research Online – Trinity College Dublin". www.tcd.ie.
  2. "The Dawn (1936)". BFI.[ dead link ]
  3. "The Making of 'The Dawn'". RTÉ Archives.
  4. The Irish Times (Tuesday, August 25, 1936), page 4.
  5. Linehan, Hugh. "Restored version of first Irish sound film 'The Dawn' to be screened". The Irish Times.