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BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films
The Promise
Directed by Michael Hayes, 1969
Drama about the lives of three young Russians from the terror of the German siege of Leningrad through the uncertainty of the postwar years to the space age.
Credits
|
Director Production Company Executive Producers Producer Screenplay Original Play Play Translation Photography Music |
Michael Hayes Howard & Wyndham Films and Television Henry T. Weinstein, Anthony B. Unger Peter Graham Scott Michael Hayes Aleksei Arbuzov Ariadne Nicolaeff Brendan J. Stafford Iwan Williams |
| Cast: John Castle (Marat Yestigneyev), Ian McKellen (Leonidik), Susan Macready (Lik Vasilyevna); Mary Jones (mother), David Mettheim (stepfather), David Garfield (soldier), Christopher Banks (neighbour), Donald Bain (Actor), Tina Williams (Oelya), William Lyon-Brown (Pyotr) | |
| 92 mins, 8,264 feet, sound, colour. | |
Why are we so keen to find it?
It's an unusual British screen adaptation of a Russian stage play, with an early film role for Ian McKellen. Director Michael Hayes worked primarily in television (including episodes of Tom Baker-era Doctor Who and the groundbreaking Shakespeare history-play series An Age of Kings), and later in promotional films; this seems to have been his first feature film.
This was the first film Russian playwright Aleksei Arbuzov allowed to be made of any of his works.
What's it about?
This is the most thorough synopsis of the film, from the Monthly Film Bulletin (February 1970):
During the siege of Leningrad in 1942, Marat Yestigneyev returns to his parents' apartment to find that it has been taken over by a young girl, Lika, recently made homeless by the war. For a time the two comfort each other with the games they create from the present and their confident promises for the future. Leonidik, a young poet, abruptly appears in search of food and shelter, and stays on after finding himself attracted to Lika. Jealously, Marat leaves to join the army, and Leonidik soon follows. At the war's end the two men return, both obviously in love with Lika, but while Leonidik is desperately afraid of any action that will mean losing her, Marat - out of stubborn pride - decides that he must be the one to leave and goes to Saratov to pursue his career as an engineer. Lika and Leonidik are married and hear nothing of Marat for thrirteen years, when he suddenly returns, dejected by the unrealised promise of his ambitions and critical of the effect that a safe, domestic existence has had on Leonidik's own talents. Determined to re-establish the dreams of their wartime ordeal, Leonidik persuades Marat to return again on New Year's Eve; then he departs alone, leaving Lika and Marat to themselves.
Last seen?
It had its general commercial release in Britain in December 1969.
What else do we know about it?
The Promise was budgeted at less than £200,000 and was filmed almost entirely at Shepperton, using some of the same sets created for Oliver! (1968), sprinkled with fake snow to make it resemble Leningrad.
Does anything survive?
Not even a still, as far as we know.
Reviews
The Cinema judged The Promise "a workmanlike and unpretentious presentation of a play that relies on character development in the intimacy of a single set," and praised Hayes' 'unobtrusive' direction, concluding, "a thoughtful, often moving study of human nature appealing principally to the serious minded and theatregoers."
The Monthly Film Bulletin was less generous, noting the 'astringent' budget, but complaining that Hayes' "scissors and paste treatment" left the film's stage roots too much on display.
Georgia Korossi, Curatorial Assistant, BFI National Archive
You can find more about British films of the late 1960s, including entries on surviving films and video clips for users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries, at BFI Screenonline. You can also view similar titles at the BFI Mediatheques.
