Now That April’s Here is a 1958 English-Canadian feature from William Davidson and Norman Knelman based on short stories by Morley Callaghan.[1]

Now That April’s Here
Directed byWilliam Davidson
Written byNorman Klenman
Produced by
  • William Davidson
  • Norman Klenman
Starring
Narrated byRaymond Massey
CinematographyWilliam H. Gimmi
Edited by
  • William Davidson
  • Norman Klenman
Music byJohn Hubert Bath
Distributed byInternational Film Distributors
Release date
  • June 20, 1958 (1958-06-20)
Running time
84 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$75,000 (estimated)

Synopsis

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An early English-Canadian movie shot on the streets of Toronto, Ontario in 1957 and one of the first Canadian feature films to be produced outside of Quebec. Producers William Davidson and Norman Klenman[2] chose as their source a collection of short stories by Morley Callaghan that had been written in the 1930s known as Now That April’s Here[3] (curiously the four they selected to film did not include the title story: ‘Silk Stockings,’ ‘Rocking Chair,’ ‘The Rejected One’ and ‘A Sick Call’). The screenplay was written specifically as a feature, not as a series of short television dramas, with a common Toronto locale, and the filmmakers got the tacit support of producer/exhibitor Nat Taylor. It was released with some fanfare in the summer of 1958.

Raymond Massey provided the voice-over narration linking the four stories; however, the film was dismissed by Variety for its ‘amateurish production and acting values’ and it died at the box office.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Morris, Peter (1984). The Film Companion. Toronto: Irwin Publishing. pp. 84–85. ISBN 0-7725-1505-0.
  2. ^ Morris, Peter (July 2002). "Before the Beginning: William Davidson's & Norman Klenman's Now That April's Here". Take One: Film & Television in Canada. 11 (38): 12–18.
  3. ^ Callaghan, Morley (1936). Now That April's Here. Random House. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
  4. ^ Plummer, Kevin (18 April 2015). "Historicist: Now That April's Here". Torontoist. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
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