An Englishman's Home
Encyclopedia
An Englishman's Home is a threat-of-invasion play by Guy du Maurier
, first produced in 1909. The title is a reference to the expression "an Englishman's home is his castle".
on 27th January and went on to be a long-running success. It is now considered a significant example of the invasion literature
popular at the time. The play was produced by Guy's brother Gerald du Maurier
, possibly without his knowledge and with some assistance from J. M. Barrie
. The story concerns an attack on England by an unnamed foreign power, generally assumed to represent Germany. The home of an ordinary middle class family is beseiged by soldiers, and the play climaxes with the father shooting an enemy officer and subsequently being executed. The play stressed Britain's unpreparedness for attack, and has been credited with boosting recruitment to the Territorial Army in the years immediately before World War I
. It influenced niece Daphne du Maurier
's novelette The Birds
, which was made into a movie directed by Alfred Hitchock
.
drama film
of the same name directed by Albert de Courville
and starring Edmund Gwenn
, Mary Maguire
and Paul Henreid. A German spy is despatched to Britain to search out targets for a planned invasion.
Guy du Maurier
Guy Louis Busson du Maurier, D.S.O. was an English army officer and playwright. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and the actor Gerald du Maurier. He was educated at Marlborough and Sandhurst, and became an officer in the Royal Fusiliers in 1885...
, first produced in 1909. The title is a reference to the expression "an Englishman's home is his castle".
Play
'An Englishman's Home' caused a sensation in London when it appeared anonymously, under the name "A Patriot", in 1909. It first played at Wyndham's TheatreWyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
on 27th January and went on to be a long-running success. It is now considered a significant example of the invasion literature
Invasion literature
Invasion literature was a historical literary genre most notable between 1871 and the First World War . The genre first became recognizable starting in Britain in 1871 with The Battle of Dorking, a fictional account of an invasion of England by Germany...
popular at the time. The play was produced by Guy's brother Gerald du Maurier
Gerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
, possibly without his knowledge and with some assistance from J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
. The story concerns an attack on England by an unnamed foreign power, generally assumed to represent Germany. The home of an ordinary middle class family is beseiged by soldiers, and the play climaxes with the father shooting an enemy officer and subsequently being executed. The play stressed Britain's unpreparedness for attack, and has been credited with boosting recruitment to the Territorial Army in the years immediately before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. It influenced niece Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
's novelette The Birds
The Birds (story)
"The Birds" is a famous novelette by Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection The Apple Tree. It is the story of a farmhand, his family, and his community, who are attacked by flocks of seabirds who have organized themselves into avian suicide warriors. The story is set in...
, which was made into a movie directed by Alfred Hitchock
The Birds (film)
The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...
.
Film
Du Maurier's play was the basis for the 1940 BritishCinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
of the same name directed by Albert de Courville
Albert de Courville
Albert de Courville was a director of theatrical revues who turned to making films in the 1930s. His two most famous films , both featuring Jessie Matthews were There Goes the Bride and The Midshipmaid...
and starring Edmund Gwenn
Edmund Gwenn
Edmund Gwenn was an English theatre and film actor.-Background:Born Edmund John Kellaway in Wandsworth, London , and educated at St. Olave's School and later at King's College London, Gwenn began his acting career in the theatre in 1895...
, Mary Maguire
Mary Maguire
Mary Maguire was an Australian actress who briefly became a Hollywood and British film star in the late 1930s.-Childhood and Career in Australia:...
and Paul Henreid. A German spy is despatched to Britain to search out targets for a planned invasion.
Cast
- Edmund GwennEdmund GwennEdmund Gwenn was an English theatre and film actor.-Background:Born Edmund John Kellaway in Wandsworth, London , and educated at St. Olave's School and later at King's College London, Gwenn began his acting career in the theatre in 1895...
... Tom Brown - Mary MaguireMary MaguireMary Maguire was an Australian actress who briefly became a Hollywood and British film star in the late 1930s.-Childhood and Career in Australia:...
... Betty Brown - Paul Henreid ... Victor Brandt
- Carl JaffeCarl JaffeCarl Jaffe was a German Jewish actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career took off....
... Martin - Norah HowardNorah Howard-Selected filmography:* Love, Life and Laughter * Car of Dreams * Fighting Stock * I've Got a Horse * The Saint in London * The Lambeth Walk * An Englishman's Home * Two Loves...
... Maggie - Geoffrey TooneGeoffrey TooneGeoffrey Toone was an Irish-born character actor.Most of Toone's film roles after the 1930s were in supporting parts, usually as authority figures, though he did play the lead character in the Hammer Films production The Terror of the Tongs in 1961Toone was born in Dublin, Ireland to English...
... Peter Templeton - Richard AinleyRichard AinleyRichard Ainley was a stage and film actor, son of Henry Ainley and half-brother of Anthony Ainley.Although according to Allmovie his date of birth was 22 October 1910, The Internet Movie Database places it on 22 December...
... Geoffrey Brown - Desmond TesterDesmond TesterDesmond Tester was an English and Australian film actor and television actor, host and executive. He was born in London, England. Among his most notable roles was that of the ill-fated boy Stevie in the Alfred Hitchcock film Sabotage .Tester made his first stage appearance at the age of 12,...
... Billy Brown - Meinhart MaurMeinhart MaurMeinhart Maur was a Hungarian film actor. He appeared in 44 films between 1919 and 1954.He was born in Hajdúnánás, Hungary and died in London, England.-Selected filmography:* Harakiri * Die Teufelsanbeter...
... Waldo - Mavis VilliersMavis VilliersMavis Villiers, born Mavis Clare Cooney , was a British actress of stage, film and television. Her brother was Cecil Cooney, a camera operator and cinematographer. Her stage name, Villiers, was taken from her maternal grandfather...
... Dolly - Mark LesterMark LesterMark Lester is an English former child actor known for playing the title role in the 1968 musical film version of Oliver! and starring in a number of other British and European films of the 1960s and 70s and in a number of television series.-Early life and film career:Lester was born in Oxford,...
... Uncle Ben - John Wood ... Jimmy