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BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films
Welcome Mr Washington
Directed by Leslie Hiscott, 1944
Wartime caper featuring American soldiers stationed in a small English village.
Martita Hunt (Miss Finch) offers Danny Green (Hank) a cup of tea at the village meeting.
Credits
|
Director Production Company Producer Original Story Screenplay Photography |
Leslie Hiscott Shaftesbury Films Elizabeth Hiscott Noel Streatfeild Jack Whittingham Gerald Gibbs |
| Cast: Barbara Mullen (Jane Willoughby), Donald Stewart (Lieutenant Johnny Grant), Peggy Cummins (Sarah Willoughby), Leslie Bradley (Captain Abbott), Roy Emerton (Selby), Graham Moffat (Albert), Martita Hunt (Miss Finch), Danny Green (Hank) | |
| 91 mins, 8,200 feet, sound, black & white. | |
Why are we so keen to find it?
Adapted from a story by popular children's author Noel Streatfeild, the film blended topicality with whimsy and featured star Peggy Cummins in an early role.
Like Powell and Pressuburger's A Canterbury Tale, which was also released in 1944, Welcome Mr Washington showed US soldiers in a small village and the romantic possibilities which ensue. Contemporary reviews agreed that the script, by future James Bond writer Jack Whittingham, contained sharp dialogue and that the tension between the villagers and the soldiers was very plausible. An added bonus, according to Motion Picture Herald, was that "the American officers, to most critics' complete astonishment, talk and look like Americans." Dedicated to fostering good Anglo-American relations, the film also featured more subtle messages about the importance of farming for the country and the dangers gossip could pose to the community.
What's it about?
The Monthly Film Bulletin provides a full synopsis of the film from May 1944:
"Jane Willoughby and her young sister, Sarah, are left almost entirely penniless on their father's death; but rather than leave their ancestral home, Bishop's Knole, they stay on and farm the land. American troops are sent to convert part of the estate into an airfield, and chose the land belonging to Selby, an odious tenant-farmer, who is the girls' enemy and believes they have arranged it. Officers are billeted at Bishop's Knole, and Lieutenant Johnny Grant falls in love with Jane, while Sarah imagines herself in love with Captain Abbott. Selby and the vindictive postmistress, Miss Finch, do their best to incite the villagers against the girls, and the culmination comes at a village meeting when Selby makes public a cable from Johnny's father telling him to start a factory on the land after the war, and the farmer declares that they will all be dispossessed and foreign labour brought in. Jane and Johnny arrive in time to explain that their one idea is to make work and prosperity for the villagers, who are happily won round and duck Selby in the millpond. All ends happily for Johnny and Jane; but Captain Abbott makes it clear to Sarah that she must wait another five years for romance."
Last seen?
The film was last shown on British television on 19 March 1961.
Does anything survive?
One still from the BFI Stills, Posters and Designs collection shows Martita Hunt (Miss Finch) offering Danny Green (Hank) a cup of tea at the village meeting.
Reviews
The Monthly Film Bulletin commented that Welcome Mr Washington was "a well-directed, pleasant film, with a strong supporting cast, and provides entertainment about the war from a quieter and more humorous angle than usual."
Kinematograph Weekly went further, proclaiming "the birth of a very brilliant young star, Peggy Cummins," celebrating the film as "a thoroughly entertaining impression of English village life and 'not-so-innocents' abroad," And praising the way "it tenderly illustrates the joys and disillusionments of adolescents and gives our American visitors a well-timed pat on the back."
Lisa Kerrigan, Curator (Television), BFI National Archive
You can find more about British films of the mid-1940s, 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.
