Eleventh Hour (1942 documentary film)

Eleventh Hour is a 1942 Australian short documentary film from director Ken G. Hall for the Department of Information.[1]

Eleventh Hour
Directed byKen G. Hall
Produced byKen G. Hall
StarringMuriel Steinbeck
John Nugent Hayward
Margaret Sinclair
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia
Release date
  • November 1942 (1942-11)
Running time
11 minutes
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish

It was the third in a series of movies to promote Austerity War Loans, following Another Threshold.[2]

Plot edit

A woman wonders if the sacrifices of war are worth it. Her first World War veteran husband assures her that it is.

Cast edit

  • Muriel Steinbeck as the wife
  • John Nugent Hayard as the husband
  • Margaret Sinclair as the daughter in law

Reception edit

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that:

Ken Hall... has used the Anzac Day memorial services with effect... [the film] should rally the dilatory to the war bond booths. Muriel Steinbeck Is splendid... The mournful retrospection of... [the wife]... could with advantage be less insistent in the script, and more heartening implication and less exhortation be given to the propaganda angle of the narrative.[3]

Smith's Weekly said "Nothing is over-dramatised, and the mother...in the opening scenes particularly, is genuinely moving." The Age called it "impressive".[4]

References edit

  1. ^ Pike, Andrew Franklin. "The History of an Australian Film Production Company: Cinesound, 1932-70" (PDF). Australian National University. p. 241.
  2. ^ ""Eleventh Hour"". The Mirror. Perth: National Library of Australia. 7 November 1942. p. 9. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  3. ^ "NEW FILMS". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 9 November 1942. p. 7. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  4. ^ "New Film". The Age. Victoria, Australia. 6 November 1942. p. 3. Retrieved 18 April 2020 – via Trove.

External links edit