The Volunteer

BFI NFTVA-TIK DATORREN KOPIA/COPY FROM BFI NFTVA/COPIA PROCEDENTE DE BFI NFTVA
Shortfilm

A recruitment promotion film for the Fleet Air Arm, which capitalised on The Archers' friendship with Ralph Richardson, already serving as a pilot, and contrasted to comic, almost surreal, effect his prewar life as an actor with active service on an aircraft carrier. The Volunteer carries the Archers' eccentricity to remarkable lengths: Ralph Richardson appears as himself, recalling in flashback how his dresser chose the Fleet Air Arm, as does Richardson himself. The opening backstage sequence has Richardson about to play Othello; a later scene has him at Denham studios, dressed as a Beefeater for some Korda-style historical romp; the film ends aboard an aircraft carrier. Over this short meditation on the dramatic upheavals of war hangs a splendid Pressburger line: “The end of one world and the beginning of another”. To the Archers' surprise, the Fleet Air Arm reported its gratitude - and a rise in recruitment levels! Ian Christie (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger: Arrows of Desire)

YEAR   1943 PRODUCTION   Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger The Archers/Ministry of Information DIRECTOR   Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger SCREENPLAY   Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger PHOTOGRAPHY   Freddie Ford MUSIC   Allan Gray EDITION   Michael C. Chorlton CAST   Ralph Richardson (Ralph Richardson), Pat McGrath (Fred Davey), Laurence Olivier, Michael Powell RUNNING TIME   24 m.

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