Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1969
Running Times: 144 mins
Format: Technicolor     35mm      Panavision (anamorphic)
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Accord Productions
Producers: Brian Duffy, Richard Attenborough
Associate Producer: Mack Davidson
Production Manager: John Comfort

SCRIPT
Script: Len Deighton
Based on Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop Production by Charles Chilton and the members of the original cast
After a Stage Treatment By Ted Allan

DIRECTION
Director: Richard Attenborough
Assistant Director: Claude Watson

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Gerry Turpin
Camera Operator: RonnieTaylor
Camera Assistant: Michael Sarafian
Electrical Supervisor: Fred Anderson
Camera Grip: Pat Newman
Lab: Rank Laboratories, Denham

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Kevin Connor

MUSIC
Incidental Music / Songs Orchestrator / Conductor: Alfred Ralston
Music Performed By: The Band of the Irish Guards
Music Recordist: Eric Tomlinson
Music Editor: Michael Clifford

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Simon Kaye
Boom Operator: Tom Buchanan
Dubbing Mixer: Gerry Humphreys
Sound Editors: Don Challis, Brian Holland
Special Sound Effects: Peter Handford

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up Supervisor: Stuart Freeborn
Chief Hair: Biddy Chrystal
Costume Designer: Anthony Mendleson
Wardrobe Master: Brian Owen-Smith
Wardobe Mistress: Eileen Sullivan

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Ron Ballanger

VISUAL EFFECTS
Titles: Raymond Hawkey

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Don Ashton
Art Director: Harry White
Set Decorator: Peter James
Property Master: Ron Baker
Standby Property Man: Jack Towns
Construction Manager: Albert Blackshaw

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Ann Skinner
Production Accountant: Derek Tarrant
Production Secretary: Ann Paterson
Choreographer: Eleanor Fazan
Military Advisor: Major-General Sir Douglas Campbell
Production Research: May South

LOCATIONS
Locations: Brighton, Sussex, England, UK
Studio: Twickenham Studios, London, England
Location Manager: Bryan Coates

CASTING
Casting: Miriam Bricman

CAST
Wendy Alnutt (Flo Smith)
Colin Farrell (Harry Smith)
Malcolm McFee (Freddie Smith)
John Rae (Grandpa Smith)
Corin Redgrave (Bertie Smith)
Maurice Roëves (George Smith)
Paul Shelley (Jack Smith)
Kim Smith (Dickie Smith)
Angela Thorne (Betty Smith)
Mary Wimbush (Mary Smith)
Vincent Ball (Australian soldier)
Pia Colombo (Estaminet singer)
Paul Daneman (Czar Nicholas II)
Isabel Dean (Sir John French's lady)
Christian Doermer (Fritz)
Robert Flemyng (staff officer in gassed trench)
Meriel Forbes (Lady Grey)
Ian Holm (President Poincare)
David Lodge (recruiting sergeant)
Joe Melia (the photographer)
Guy Middleton (Sir William Robertson)
Juliet Mills, Nanette Newman (nurse)
Cecil Parker (Sir John)
Natasha Parry (Sir William Robertson's lady)
Gerald Sim (Chaplain)
Thorley Walters (staff officer in ballroom)
Anthony Ainley (3rd aide)
Penelope Allen (solo chorus girl)
Maurice Arthur (soldier singer)
Michael Bates (drunk lance-corporal)
Fanny Carby (mill girl)
Cecilia Darby (Sir Henry Wilson's lady)
Geoffrey Davies, Edward Fox (aides)
George Ghent, Harry Locke, Clifford Mollison, Dorothy Reynolds (hecklers)
Peter Gilmore (Private Burgess)
Ben Howard (Private Garbett)
Norman Jones (Scottish soldier)
Paddy Joyce (Irish soldier)
Angus Lennie (Scottish soldier)
Derek Newark (shooting gallery proprietor)
John Owens (Irish soldier)
Ron Pember (corporal at station)
Marianne Stone (mill girl)
John Trigger (officer at station)
Kathleen Wileman (Emma Smith at age 4)
Dirk Bogarde (Stephen)
Phyllis Calvert (Lady Haig)
Jean-Pierre Cassel (French colonel)
John Clements (General von Moltke)
John Gielgud (Count Leopold Von Berchtold)
Jack Hawkins (Emperor Franz Josef)
Kenneth More (Kaiser Wilhelm II)
Laurence Olivier (Field Marshal Sir John French)
Michael Redgrave (General Sir Henry Wilson)
Vanessa Redgrave (Sylvia Pankhurst)
Ralph Richardson (Sir Edward Grey)
Maggie Smith (music hall star)
Susannah York (Eleanor)
John Mills (Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig)
Pamela Abbott (Czarina - uncredited)
Freddie Ascott ('Whizzbang' soldier - uncredited)
Charlotte Attenborough (Emma Smith age 8 - uncredited)
Andrew Robertson (2nd Scottish soldier - uncredited)
Ray Edwards (3rd staff officer in ballroom - uncredited)
Brian Tipping (4th Scottish soldier - uncredited)
Wensley Pithey (Archduke Franz Ferdinand - uncredited)
Kathleen Helm (Berchtold's lady - uncredited)
John Woodnutt (British officer - uncredited)
Sheila Cox, Hermione Farthingale, Joyce Franklin, Carole Gray, Dinny Jones, Delia Linden, Sue Robinson (chorus girl - all uncredited)
Ruth Kettlewell (Duchess Sophie - uncredited)
David Scheuer (French soldier - uncredited)
Paul Hansard, Michael Wolf (German officers - both uncredited)
Tony Vogel (German soldier - uncredited)
Annie Bee, Valerie Smith, Isabelle Metcalfe, Jenny Morgan (girl friends in 'Goodbyee' - all uncredited)
Julia Wright (Haig's secretary - uncredited)
Bette Vivian (heckler - uncredited)
Ambrose Coghill (father - uncredited)
John Dunhill, P.G. Stephens, Christian Thorogood (Irish soldier - all uncredited)
Anthony Morton (Italian military attaché - uncredited)
Elizabeth Craven (Kaiserin - uncredited)
Christine Noonan (mill girl - uncredited)
John Gabriel (Nikolai Lenin - uncredited)
Tony Thawnton (officer on telephone - uncredited)
Stella Courtney (Poincaré's lady - uncredited)
Charles Farrell (policeman - uncredited)
Lind Joyce, Pippa Steel, Mary Yeomans (scoreboard girls - all uncredited)
Richard Davies (sergeant in burial party - uncredited)
Arthur White (sergeant in dugout - uncredited)
Joanne Brown (singer - uncredited)
Zeph Gladstone (Sir John's chauffeuse - uncredited)
Stanley Lebor, Stanley McGeagh (soldiers in gassed trench - both uncredited)
Frank Coda, Kim Grant, Richard Loring, Tom Marshall (soldiers in 'Goodbyee' - all uncredited)
Christopher Cabot (soldier in shell hole - uncredited)
John Hussey (soldier on balcony - uncredited)
Norman Shelley (staff officer in ballroom - uncredited)
Steve Plytas (Turkish military attaché - uncredited)
Jane Seymour (uncredited)
Ruth Gower (Von Moltke's lady - uncredited)
Jeremy Child (wealthy young man - uncredited)
Frank Forsyth (Woodrow Wilson - uncredited)
Richard Howard (young soldier at Mons - uncredited)

A fantasised account of one family's experiences in the First World War portrayed as an end-of-the-pier variety show. They take part in the legendary Christmas football game between British and German troops in no-mans-land, and witness many of the horrors of war first hand.

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Paramount

Finland
Rating: K-8

Sweden
Rating: 11

USA
Rating: G

AWARDS

1969
British Society of Cinematographers
Best Cinematography Award (Gerry Turpin) - winner

1970
British Academy Awards
Best Art Direction (Donald M. Ashton) - winner
Best Cinematography (Gerry Turpin) - winner
Best Costume Design (Anthony Mendleson) - winner
Best Sound Track (Don Challis, Simon Kaye) - winner
Best Supporting Actor (Laurence Olivier) - winner
UN Award - winner
Best Actress (Mary Wimbush) - nominated
Best Direction (Richard Attenborough) - nominated
Best Film - nominated
Best Film Editing (Kevin Connor) - nominated

Golden Globes, USA
Best English-Language Foreign Film - winner

1969
October
3: USA - theatrical release

December
26: Sweden - theatrical release

1970
September
11: Finland - theatrical release

MAGAZINES

Filmfacts 1969 p.385
credits, reprinted reviews

Monthly Film Bulletin May 1969 pp.93-94
credits, synopsis, review

Saturday Review 4 October 1969
review

BOOKS

British Film Catalogue entry number 13954
credits

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films p.345
credits

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

play into film, musical, anti war, world war ii, trenches, football

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008