Two Thousand Women *** (1944, Phyllis Calvert, Flora Robson, Patricia Roc, Renée Houston, Anne Crawford, Jean Kent) – Classic Movie Review 6970

Co-writer/ director Frank Launder’s solid 1944 British wartime comedy drama from Gainsborough Pictures offers plenty of suspense, wartime atmosphere and detail, and some cheerful humour thrown in as well. It stars the formidable line-up of Phyllis Calvert, Flora Robson, Patricia Roc, Renée Houston, Anne Crawford and Jean Kent.

The story by Launder and Michael Pertwee has three RAF aircrewmen pilots stranded in Occupied World War Two France after their bomber has been shot down. Pilot Officer Jimmy Moore (James McKechnie), Sergeant Alec Harvey (Reginald Purdell) and Dave Kennedy (Robert [Rob] Arden) seek refuge at an internment camp in a grand hotel at the spa town of Marneville, full of British female prisoners of war. The interned women hide the downed British airmen from the Nazi soldiers, and then try to help them to escape during a concert they plan to put on.

The cast is a virtual run-down of British character actresses of the time, and they help to make this rather limited story something of a joy to watch. Launder and screen-writing partner Gilliat keep it interesting and involving, as well as amusing.

Also in the cast are Thora Hird, Dulcie Gray, Carl Jaffe, Muriel Aked, Kathleen Boutall, Hilda Campbell-Russell, Christiana Forbes, John Snaggs, Betty Jardine, Janette Scott, Joan Ingram, Christiane De Maurin, Guy Le Feuvre [Lefeuvre] and Paul Sheridan.

Two Thousand Women is directed by Frank Launder, runs 97 minutes, is made by Gainsborough Pictures, is released by General Film Distributors (UK) and Ellis Films (US), is written by Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat and Michael Pertwee (additional dialogue), is shot in black and white by Jack E Cox, is produced by Edward Black (executive) and Maurice Ostrer, and is scored by Louis Levy.

It is the second in an unofficial wartime trilogy by Launder and Gilliat, after Millions Like Us (1943) and before Waterloo Road (1945).

It was released in the US in 1951 in a butchered version of only 81 minutes as House of 1,000 Women.

Launder regretted his approach to the story, saying he ‘should have treated the subject more seriously… that it would have been a bigger film if I concentrated less on the comedy and more on the drama.’

Calvert recalled that the two Scottish women Houston and Robson ‘didn’t get on at all’.

Launder and Gilliat wrote the role of English novice nun Rosemary Brown, who falls in love with a pilot, especially for Calvert, but she turned it down and Roc played it instead. Calvert ended up playing journalist Freda Thompson, even though she realised the film-makers ‘didn’t like me turning down a part they had written for me, which I can understand.’

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6970

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