Pastor Hall (1940)

Director:

Roy Boulting

Writers:

Leslie Arliss (screen story)
Haworth Bromley (screen story)

Release Date:

13 September 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

This film is based on the true story of Pastor Martin Neimuller, who was sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticising the Nazi party...

Plot Keywords:

Stormtrooper | Nazi | Anti Nazism | Propaganda | WWII

Cast

Wilfrid Lawson	...	Pastor Frederick Hall
Nova Pilbeam	...	Christine Hall
Seymour Hicks	...	General von Grotjahn
Marius Goring	...	Fritz Gerte
Brian Worth	...	Werner von Grotjahn
Percy Walsh	...	Herr Veit
Lina Barrie	...	Lina Veit
Eliot Makeham	...	Pippermann
Peter Cotes	...	Erwin Kohn
Edmund Willard	...	Freundlich
Hay Petrie	...	Nazi Pastor
Bernard Miles	...	Heinrich Degan
D.J. Williams
Manning Whiley	...	Vogel
John Salew

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15

Company:

Charter Film Productions

Trivia:

In the late-'30s, when the Boulting brothers submitted the script to the British Board of Film Censors (a common practice for years), it was rejected as unsuitable. The board claimed that it would have a negative effect on the Prime Minister's attempt to make peace with Hitler. However, when war broke out, the film was instantly put into production as an anti-Nazi tract.

Quotes:

Pastor Frederick Hall: Oh you're a stormtrooper now, are you?
Heinrich Degan: Well, it's a job, Herr Pastor. I've been out of work so long.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Empire of the Censors (1995) (TV)

A bold political statement from a Britain entering WWII

"Pastor Hall" is a bold, very early attempt to expose the Nazi regime. Halliwell's Film Guide gives the film a measly one star rating, which only goes to prove one should not believe everything one reads in print. It is, as Halliwell says, a "courageous film of its time" but in direct opposition to Halliwell, it is VERY interesting dramatically. Cinematically, the film works and considering budget constraints, it is an admirable production for 1939 (released 1940). It is also a great example of British film making for the period.

It's greatest flaw is arguably the upper class English accents. An interesting thing happens once one is drawn into the film, however: because the accents are a constant, it becomes a dramatic convention that one accepts. In other words, it does not detract from the dramatic impact of the social statement that the film makes. It also lends the film a timeless quality to the moral values it underlines - making the film surprisingly relevant for the 21st century viewer.

Historically, it a very important film. Made before the full horrors of the concentration camps were known, "Pastor Hall" is the first film to deal with the issue of the Nazi concentration camps. Fortunatley, I have a copy that I taped off air several years ago, and the image quality is better than a lot of digital transfers I've seen.

This film should be revived. I'd run "Pastor Hall" as a main feature, and run Alain Resnais' stark 1955 documentary masterpiece, "Nuit Et Brouillard" (Night and Fog) right afterwards. Both films should be required viewing for the film student.

- If you found this 'mini-review' helpful, then please checkout my full length IMDb reviews, written for post-viewing discussion with live audiences. This postscript added 21st June 2006.