The Volunteer (1944 film)

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The Volunteer
TheVolunteerTradeAd.jpg
Trade advertisement
Directed by Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Written byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Produced byMichael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Starring Ralph Richardson
Pat McGrath
CinematographyFrederick Ford
Edited byJohn Seabourne
Michael C. Chorlton
Music by Allan Gray
Release date
  • 10 January 1944 (1944-1-10)
Running time
24 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Volunteer (1944) is a short black-and-white British film by the filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger for the British Ministry of Information during the Second World War, as recruitment propaganda for the Fleet Air Arm. The number of volunteers for the Fleet Air Arm rose after its release.

Contents

The film features Ralph Richardson starring in a West End production of Othello . Pat McGrath plays his dresser, who joins the Fleet Air Arm and becomes a war hero as famous as Richardson himself. Anna Neagle and Laurence Olivier make cameo appearances, as does the film's director, Michael Powell, and another British film director, Anthony Asquith.

This film was one of a highly regarded series of wartime collaborations between Powell and Pressburger, which also included The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946). [1]

The film is available as a supplement to The Criterion Collection DVD of Powell and Pressburger's film 49th Parallel (1941) and on the BFI's blu-ray edition (2001) of Powell and Pressburger's film One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942). [2]

The director Michael Powell during filming for The Volunteer, 1943 The Royal Navy during the Second World War A17389.jpg
The director Michael Powell during filming for The Volunteer, 1943

Cast

References

  1. Christie, Ian. Arrows of Desire: The Films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (1985)
  2. Powell and Pressburger (directors / screen-writers) (1944). One of our aircraft is missing (motion picture, blu-ray). BFI. BFIB1422 via 5-035673-014226.