“AN ENGLISHMAN’S HOME”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1939, Page 6

“AN ENGLISHMAN’S HOME”

REALISTIC PRODUCTION. Thirty years ago a far-sighted Englishman. Guy du Maurier, wrote a play entitled "An Englishman’s Home." The play enjoyed an exceptionally successful run. It dealt with a sudden invasion of England by an enemy who took advantage of a strike and a fog to descend on Britain from warships anchored along the coast. It is interesting to recollect that in Berlin it was hissed off the stage! The play has been made into a film, and the story modernised. A British company has produced "An Englishman's | Home,” making of it a film that pictures aspects of the contemporary scene with startling accuracy. England’s leisurely preparations, and the average Englishman pretty well convinced that it can't happen there! Meanwhile the enemy is preparing his plans, and getting ready for "the | day." When "the day" arrives, enemy ' warplanes, co-operating with a well-j organised espionage system, drop; armed parachutists at selected points; whoso job it is to hold their ground whilst the main battle squadrons concentrate on London. The Air Ministry pul at the disposal of the producers whole squadrons of their latest ' planes, including Blenheim and Wei-! linglon bombers, Spitfires. Bombay troop-carriers and Lysander machines. The result is a marvellously realistic production, with some tremendously impressive flying shots. The film cost £100.090 to produce, lint its production is as much a national service today as that of (ho original play in 1911.