This Land Is Mine (1943)

A mild-mannered school-teacher in a Nazi-occupied town during W.W.II finds himself being torn between collaboration and resistance.

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writer:

Dudley Nichols (screenplay)

Stars:

Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Hara, George Sanders

Won 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charles Laughton	...	Albert Lory
Maureen O'Hara	...	Louise Martin
George Sanders	...	George Lambert
Walter Slezak	...	Major Erich von Keller
Kent Smith	...	Paul Martin
Una O'Connor	...	Mrs. Emma Lory
Philip Merivale	...	Professor Sorel
Thurston Hall	...	Mayor Henry Manville
George Coulouris	...	Prosecutor
Nancy Gates	...	Julie Grant
Ivan F. Simpson	...	Judge (as Ivan Simpson)
John Donat	...	Edmund Lorraine

Storyline

Albert Lory is a teacher at a school in German-occupied France. He is a coward, but he is drawn into the actions of the resistance. Arrested by the Germans because of an alleged murder, a German officer promises him freedom, if he is willing to collaborate against French resistance (by discontinuing his defense speech, which is arousing the citizens in court).

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Plot Keywords:

france | adult lives at home | resistance | bravery | suicide | 

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Latin

Release Date:

7 May 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

Esta tierra es mía

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jean-Renoir- Dudly Nichols Productions,RKO Radio Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Henry Roquemore is in casting call lists playing a butcher, but was not seen in the film. The jury foreman, George M. Carleton, is said to be the town butcher by Charles Laughton when he addresses the jury.

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Goofs

In the initial scenes of the village, an advertisement for War Bonds can be seen on a wall. Although the French government sought funds from its population during the First World War (through National Defense Loans), it would not have occurred in the Second World War as France was so quickly defeated and occupied. The advertisement in this movie therefore, is more likely to be a near-subliminal appeal to the American population to purchase War Bonds to support the US effort.

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Quotes

Major Erich von Keller: After all, what is the United States? A charming cocktail of Irish and Jews. Very spectacular; but, very childish. And England? A few old ladies wearing their grandfathers' leather britches.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: "Somewhere in Europe"-

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Connections

Featured in Cinema: Alguns Cortes - Censura II (2014)

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Soundtracks

Die Lorelei
(1838) (uncredited)
Music by Friedrich Silcher (1838)
Poem by Heinrich Heine (1823)
Played on accordion by Kent Smith and sung by the German soldiers

User Reviews

A courtroom speech to die for !

Charles Laughton delivers one of the finest courtroom speeches that you are ever likely to see (it certainly ranks with Spencer Tracy in "Inherit the Wind", or Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird" ). Here, though, Laughton is not pleading the case for the defense or the prosecution, he is pleading for his own life in a Nazi "show-trial".

Rather than saving his own life by following the instructions of the German authorities, Laughton chooses to use the opportunity presented by his conducting his own defense to launch a masterful indictment of the Nazi regime. His speech to the jurors and the packed, public galleries is delivered with the sincerity and authority which only an actor with Laughton's many talents, could hope to muster. Inspired by Laughton's speech, the jurors find the courage to acquit him and Laughton dashes from the court to the school where he is a teacher.

Having made such a speech, Laughton knows that he has signed his own death warrant. There is just time, before the German soldiers come to take him away, for one final speech to his beloved class of school-children. Once again, Laughton produces the goods in this very touching scene as he reads to the children articles from the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Most of this film is typical, low-budget, World War Two propaganda but Laughton raises it above the mediocre. Maureen O'Hara is gorgeous as the fellow teacher with whom Laughton is in love. Also worth watching, as ever, is Una O'Connor as Laughton's mother.