The Lost People

Last updated

The Lost People
"The Lost People" (1949).jpg
British quad poster
Directed by
Written by Bridget Boland
Based onCockpit by Bridget Boland
Produced by Gordon Wellesley
Starring
Cinematography Jack Asher
Edited by Gordon Hales
Music by John Greenwood
Production
company
Distributed by General Film Distributors
Release date
  • 22 August 1949 (1949-08-22)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£80,000 (by 1953) [1]

The Lost People, also known as Cockpit, is a 1949 British drama film directed by Muriel Box and Bernard Knowles and starring Dennis Price, Mai Zetterling and Richard Attenborough. [2] It is based on the 1948 play Cockpit by Bridget Boland. [3]

Contents

Plot

After the Second World War, some British soldiers are guarding a theatre in Germany containing various refugees and prisoners trying to work out what to do with them. However, the displaced people, after uniting against fascism for five years, begin to disintegrate into their own ancient feuds: Serb against Croat, Pole against Russian, resistance fighter against collaborator and everyone against the Jews. Two people, Jan and Lily, begin a romance and decide to wed. However, one of the refugees is diagnosed with bubonic plague. [4]

Cast

Production

It was shot partly at Denham Studios outside London with sets designed by the art directors John Elphick and George Provis. The film's costumes were designed by Julie Harris.

Associate producer Alfred Roome called the film "terrible ... we shot for ages, then it stopped and started again and got terribly boring ... it actually had two or three directors who came and went." [5]

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote:

There is nothing wrong with the theme (though it has lost its topicality), but everything wrong with the way in which it is handled: the subject demands deep sympathy and comprehension, but the too-familiar Gainsborough treatment gives it vulgar novelette stature and a blundering insularity. The attempts to be serious and to point a moral give the effect of talking down, as if to an audience of idiots, from the complacent and insulting point of view that foreigners exist merely to get into difficulties from which the British have to extricate them. The script is deplozably crude and stilted, but a greater disaster comes with the direction. Technically incompetent, flat and lifeless, it achieves climaxes solely by loud, emphatic bursts of background music over clumsily-handled crowd movements. The crowds of extras wear their rags and foreign accents uneasily, as might be expected: of the leading players, Mai Zetterling (impeccably made up throughout) gives almost a caricature of her familiar refugee role, Dennis Price is ineffectual and anonymous, Richard Attenborough bewildered, and Siobhan McKenna tries hard to graft Irish charm on to a French communist agitator. One can only hope, at least, that the film will never be shown abroad. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Two-Way Stretch</i> 1960 British film by Robert Day

Two-Way Stretch, also known as Nothing Barred, is a 1960 British comedy film directed by Robert Day and starring Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Lionel Jeffries and Bernard Cribbins. The screenplay is by Vivian Cox, John Warren and Len Heath. A group of prisoners plan to break out of jail, commit a robbery, and then break back into their jail again, thus giving them the perfect alibi – that they were behind bars when the robbery occurred. However, their plans are disrupted by the arrival of a strict new Chief Prison Officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Price</span> English actor (1915–1973)

Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose Price was an English actor. He played Louis Mazzini in the Ealing Studios film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and the omnicompetent valet Jeeves in 1960s television adaptations of P. G. Wodehouse's stories.

<i>Gandhi</i> (film) 1982 epic biographical film by Richard Attenborough

Gandhi is a 1982 epic biographical film based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, a major leader in the Indian independence movement against the British Empire during the 20th century. A co-production between India and the United Kingdom, the film was directed and produced by Richard Attenborough from a screenplay written by John Briley. It stars Ben Kingsley in the title role. The biographical film covers Gandhi's life from a defining moment in 1893, as he is thrown off a South African train for being in a whites-only compartment and concludes with his assassination and funeral in 1948. Although a practising Hindu, Gandhi's embracing of other faiths, particularly Christianity and Islam, is also depicted.

<i>Im All Right Jack</i> 1959 British comedy film by John Boulting

I'm All Right Jack is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel Private Life by Alan Hackney.

<i>Only Two Can Play</i> 1962 British film by Sidney Gilliat

Only Two Can Play is a 1962 British comedy film directed by Sidney Gilliat starring Peter Sellers, Mai Zetterling and Virginia Maskell. The screenplay was by Bryan Forbes, based on the 1955 novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis.

<i>Easy Money</i> (1948 film) 1948 British film by Bernard Knowles

Easy Money is a 1948 British satirical film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Greta Gynt, Dennis Price and Jack Warner. It was written by Muriel and Sydney Box, based on the 1948 play of the same title by Arnold Ridley. It was released by Gainsborough Pictures.

<i>A Place of Ones Own</i> 1945 film

A Place of One's Own is a 1945 British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An atmospheric ghost story based on the 1940 novel of the same title by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Mason and Mullen are artificially aged to play the old couple. It was one of the cycle of Gainsborough Melodramas.

<i>The Ship That Died of Shame</i> 1955 British film by Basil Dearden

The Ship That Died of Shame, released in the United States as PT Raiders, is a black-and-white 1955 Ealing Studios crime film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Richard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Owen and Virginia McKenna.

<i>Jet Storm</i> 1959 British film by Cy Endfield

Jet Storm is a 1959 British thriller film directed and co-written by Cy Endfield. Richard Attenborough stars with Stanley Baker, Hermione Baddeley and Diane Cilento. The film is a precursor to the later aviation disaster film genre such as Airport (1970).

<i>Holiday Camp</i> (film) 1947 British film

Holiday Camp is a 1947 British comedy drama film directed by Ken Annakin, starring Flora Robson, Jack Warner, Dennis Price, and Hazel Court, and also features Kathleen Harrison and Jimmy Hanley. It is set at one of the then-popular holiday camps. It resonated with post-war audiences and was very successful. It was the first film to feature the Huggett family, who went on to star in "The Huggetts" film series.

<i>Dance Little Lady</i> 1954 British film by Val Guest

Dance, Little Lady is a 1954 British drama film directed by Val Guest and starring Terence Morgan, Mai Zetterling, Guy Rolfe and Mandy Miller. The screenplay was by Guest and Doreen Montgomery from a story by R. Howard Alexander and Alfred Dunning.

<i>The Man Within</i> (film) 1947 British film

The Man Within is a 1947 British, Technicolor, adventure, crime, drama film, directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Ronald Shiner as Cockney Harry, Michael Redgrave, Jean Kent, Joan Greenwood and Richard Attenborough. In the United States, it was released in a slightly shorter version, retitled The Smugglers. It was produced by Triton Films and Production Film Service. The film was also presented by J. Arthur Rank and the Rank Organisation. The film was adapted from the 1929 novel The Man Within by Graham Greene.

<i>The Bad Lord Byron</i> 1949 film by David MacDonald

The Bad Lord Byron is a 1949 British historical drama film about the life of Lord Byron. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred Dennis Price as Byron with Mai Zetterling, Linden Travers and Joan Greenwood.

<i>The White Unicorn</i> 1947 British film

The White Unicorn is a 1947 British drama film directed by Bernard Knowles and starring Margaret Lockwood, Joan Greenwood, Ian Hunter and Dennis Price. Kyra Vayne appeared as the singer. It was made at Walton Studios by the independent producer John Corfield, and released by General Film Distributors. The film's sets were designed by Norman G. Arnold. It was also known as Milkwhite Unicorn and Bad Sister.

<i>The Truth About Women</i> 1957 British film by Muriel Box

The Truth About Women is a 1957 British comedy film directed by Muriel Box and starring Laurence Harvey, Julie Harris, Mai Zetterling and Diane Cilento.

<i>SOS Pacific</i> 1959 British film

SOS Pacific is a 1959 British adventure drama film directed by Guy Green and starring Richard Attenborough, Pier Angeli, John Gregson, Eva Bartok and Eddie Constantine. The film was shot in black and white, but later underwent colourisation.

<i>Frieda</i> (film) 1947 British film

Frieda is a 1947 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring David Farrar, Glynis Johns and Mai Zetterling. Made by Michael Balcon at Ealing Studios, it is based on the 1946 play of the same title by Ronald Millar who co-wrote the screenplay with Angus MacPhail. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Jim Morahan and Michael Relph.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Attenborough</span> British actor and director (1923–2014)

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, was an English actor, film director, and producer.

<i>Hell Is Sold Out</i> 1951 British film by Michael Anderson

Hell Is Sold Out is a 1951 British drama film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Mai Zetterling, Herbert Lom and Richard Attenborough. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Maurice Dekobra.

<i>Golden Years</i> (2016 film) 2015 comedy heist movie by John Miller

Golden Years is a 2016 British action comedy film directed by John Miller and written by Miller, Nick Knowles and Jeremy Sheldon. It follows the exploits of a group of pensioners who, having seen their pensions diminished, decide to tour National Trust properties in their caravan and rob nearby banks. It stars Bernard Hill, Virginia McKenna, Simon Callow, Una Stubbs, Alun Armstrong and Phil Davis.

References

  1. Andrew Spicer, Sydney Box Manchester Uni Press 2006 p 211
  2. "The Lost People". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  3. "The Lost People (1950) - Muriel Box, Bernard Knowles - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie".
  4. "The Lost People". BFI. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  5. McFarlane, Brian (1997). An autobiography of British cinema : as told by the filmmakers and actors who made it. p. 499. ISBN   9780413705204.
  6. "The Lost People". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 16 (181): 157. 1 January 1949 via ProQuest.