Forever and a Day is a 1943 American drama film, a collaborative effort employing seven directors/producers and 22 writers, with a huge cast of well-known stars.
Background
In March 1940, Cedric Hardwicke initiated the project of a film made without pay by British writers, directors and actors/actresses, intended to honor the spirit of their homeland and to benefit the war relief charities, the Studios RKO financing the film's production costs with a budget of $300,000. : it was estimated that if the pro bono participants in the film had been salaried, the film would have cost 6 million (the actors and actresses appearing in the film would have been paid 60 per week as mandated by Equity – their salaries could have been systematically donated) .
The film – whose first working title was Let The Rafters Ring with This Changing Time and Forever and a Day both later presented as possibilities – had its originally planned completion date of June 1, 1941 canceled by the script which did not It was not completed until April 1941. WP Lipscomb – who was paid 10,000 – wrote this screenplay, apparently based on the brainstorming sessions of a committee of writers considering a script proposed by Robert Stevenson. This screenplay, attributed by Stevenson to an unpublished novel he had written, openly repeated the plot of Cavalcade (1933), the first British film to find strong favor with the film industry and American moviegoers, which had retraced the personal history of the families. residing in a London town house against the backdrop of the historic events of 1899 to 1929. To accommodate a large number of British-born stars, Forever and a Day ran for 136 years (1804-1940) and was filmed – with a minimum of prior publicity – in May-December 1941.
Plot
During World War II, American Gates Trimble Pomfret (Kent Smith) is in London during the Blitz to sell the ancestral family home. The current tenant, Lesley Trimble (Ruth Warrick), tries to dissuade him from selling by telling him about the 140-year history of the place and the links between the Trimble and Pomfret families.
Partial casting
Kent Smith as Gates Trimble Pomfret
Reginald Gardiner as Assistant Hotel Manager
Victor McLaglen as Archibald Spavin, hotel doorman
Arthur Treacher as second air raid observer
June Lockhart as a girl in an air raid shelter
Ruth Warrick as Lesley Trimble
Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Mr. Dabb
Herbert Marshall as priest in the air raid shelter
Charles Irwin as Corporal Charlie
C. Aubrey Smith as Admiral Eustace Trimble
Edmund Gwenn as Stubbs
Lumsden Hare as Fitch
Ray Milland as Lieutenant William Trimble
Dame May Whitty as Mrs Lucy Trimble
Gene Lockhart as Cobblewick
Anna Neagle as Susan Trenchard
Claude Allister as William Barstow
Alan Edmiston as Tripp, Pomfret's lawyer
Claude Rains as Ambrose Pomfret
Clifford Severn as Nelson Trimble
Alec Craig as Ambrose Pomfret's butler
Jessie Matthews as Mildred Trimble
Reginald Owen as Simpson, lawyer
Ian Hunter as Dexter Pomfret
Charles Laughton as Bellamy, Dexter's butler
Anna Lee as Cornelia Trimble
Buster Keaton as Wilkins, plumber's helper
Montagu Love as Sir John Bunn
Edward Everett Horton as Sir Anthony Trimble-Pomfret
Daphne Moore as Elizabeth Trimble-Pomfret
Patric Knowles as Trimble-Pomfret's son
June Duprez as Julia Trimble-Pomfret
Cecil Kellaway as dinner guest
Isobel Elsom as Lady Trimble-Pomfret
Ida Lupino as Jenny Jones, the maid
Wendy Barrie as Edith Trimble-Pomfret
Wendell Hulett as Augustus Trimble-Pomfret
Eric Blore as Charles, the butler
Brian Aherne as Jim Trimble
Merle Obéron as Marjorie Ismay
Emily Fitzroy as Mrs Fulcher
Una O'Connor as Mrs. Caroline Ismay
Richard Haydn as Mr Butcher
Odette Myrtil as Madame Gaby
Nigel Bruce as Major Garrow
Elsa Lanchester as Mamie, the hotel maid
Ivan F. Simpson as Dexter, the hotel tenant
Anita Sharp-Bolster as Mrs. Garrow
Roland Young as Henry Barringer
Gladys Cooper as Mrs. Barringer
Marta Gale as Miss Garrow
Robert Cummings as Ned Trimble
Donald Crisp as Captain Martin
Doris Lloyd as Trimble Maid
Helena Pickard as Trimble Maid
Connie Leon as a wartime Londoner
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