Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1969
Running Times: 144m
Length:
Format: 35mm/filmed in Panavision (anamorphic)
Colour Format: Technicolor
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: mono

DIRECTION

Directed by: Richard Attenborough

PRODUCTION
Copyright: © 1969 by Paramount Pictures Corporation
Production Company: An Accord production
Produced by: Brian Duffy and Richard Attenborough
Associate Producer: Mack Davidson
Production Manager: John Comfort

SCRIPT
Script: Len Deighton [uncredited]
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
Assistant Director: Claude Watson
Continuity: Ann Skinner

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

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Kevin Connor
Processed by: Rank Laboratories, Denham

MUSIC
The Songs Orchestrated and Incidental Music Composed and Conducted by: Alfred Ralston
Music Recordist: Eric Tomlinson
Music Editor: Michael Clifford

The Band of the Irish Guards
Director of Music: Lieut-Colonel C.H. Jaeger
appears by kind permission of The Officer Commanding, Irish Guards

and
The Orchestra of the Corps of Royal Engineers (Aldershot)
Director of Music: Captain E.G. Horabin
appears by kind permission of The Engineer-in-Chief

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

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

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: Ron Ballanger

VISUAL EFFECTS
Titles Designed by: Raymond Hawkey
Photographed by: David Cripps

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designed by: Don Ashton
Art Director: Harry White
Set Dresser: Peter James
Property Master: Ron Baker
Stand-By Propertyman: Jack Towns
Construction Manager: Albert Blackshaw
Scenic Artist: Peter Wood

OTHER CREW
Production Accountant: Derek Tarrant
Production Secretary: Ann Paterson
Choreography by: Eleanor Fazan
Production Research: May Routh
Military Advisor: Major-General Sir Douglas Campbell

LOCATIONS
Filmed entirely on location in and around the town of Brighton and completed at Twickenham Studios, London, England
Location Manager: Bryan Coates

CASTING
Casting: Miriam Brickman

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)

with
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)

and
Anthony Ainley (3rd aide)
Penelope Allen (solo chorus girl)
Maurice Arthur (soldier singer)
Freddie Ascott
Michael Bates (drunk lance-corporal)
Fanny Carby (mill girl)
Cecilia Darby (Sir Henry Wilson's lady)
Geoffrey Davies, Edward Fox (aides)
George Ghent (heckler)
Peter Gilmore (Private Burgess)
Ben Howard (Private Garbett)
Norman Jones (Scottish soldier)
Paddy Joyce (Irish soldier)
Angus Lennie (Scottish soldier)
Harry Locke (heckler)
Clifford Mollison (heckler)
Derek Newark (shooting gallery proprietor)
John Owens (Irish soldier)
Ron Pember (corporal at station)
Dorothy Reynolds (heckler)
Marianne Stone (mill girl)
John Trigger (officer at station)
Kathleen Wileman (Emma Smith at age 4)

and guest stars
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 as Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig

UNCREDITED CAST

Pamela Abbott (Czarina)
Freddie Ascott ('Whizzbang' soldier)
Charlotte Attenborough (Emma Smith age 8)
Andrew Robertson (2nd Scottish soldier)
Ray Edwards (3rd staff officer in ballroom)
Brian Tipping (4th Scottish soldier)
Wensley Pithey (Archduke Franz Ferdinand)
Kathleen Helm (Berchtold's lady)
John Woodnutt (British officer)
Sheila Cox, Hermione Farthingale, Joyce Franklin, Carole Gray, Dinny Jones, Delia Linden, Sue Robinson (chorus girls)
Ruth Kettlewell (Duchess Sophie)
David Scheuer (French soldier)
Paul Hansard, Michael Wolf (German officers)
Tony Vogel (German soldier)
Annie Bee, Valerie Smith, Isabelle Metcalfe, Jenny Morgan (girl friends in 'Goodbyee')
Julia Wright (Haig's secretary)
Bette Vivian (heckler)
Ambrose Coghill (father)
John Dunhill, P.G. Stephens, Christian Thorogood (Irish soldier)
Anthony Morton (Italian military attaché)
Elizabeth Craven (Kaiserin)
Christine Noonan (mill girl)
John Gabriel (Nikolai Lenin)
Tony Thawnton (officer on telephone)
Stella Courtney (Poincaré's lady)
Charles Farrell (policeman)
Lind Joyce, Pippa Steel, Mary Yeomans (scoreboard girls)
Richard Davies (sergeant in burial party)
Arthur White (sergeant in dugout)
Joanne Brown (singer)
Zeph Gladstone (Sir John's chauffeuse)
Stanley Lebor, Stanley McGeagh (soldiers in gassed trench)
Frank Coda, Kim Grant, Richard Loring, Tom Marshall (soldiers in 'Goodbyee')
Christopher Cabot (soldier in shell hole)
John Hussey (soldier on balcony)
Norman Shelley (staff officer in ballroom)
Steve Plytas (Turkish military attaché)
Jane Seymour
Ruth Gower (Von Moltke's lady)
Jeremy Child (wealthy young man)
Frank Forsyth (Woodrow Wilson)
Richard Howard (young soldier at Mons)

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
MPAA: 21948

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

PERIODICALS

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: 8 September, 2009