The World Owes Me A Living

BFI Most Wanted: the hunt for Britain's missing films

Directed by Vernon Sewell, 1945

A late-in-the-day wartime drama from Vernon Sewell, in which an injured RAF pilot flashes back to his days before the war and the events that led to him joining up.

Jack (Jack Livesey), Moira (Judy Campbell) and Paul (David Farrar) contemplate their future.

Credits

Director Production Companies Producer Screenplay Photography	Vernon Sewell British National Films Louis H. Jackson Erwin Reiner, Vernon Sewell Gerald Gibbs, Geoffrey Faithfull
Cast: David Farrar (Paul), Judy Campbell (Moira), Sonia Dresdel (Eve), Jack Livesey (Jack), Jack Barker (Chuck), John Laurie (Matthews), Anthony Hawtrey (Jerry), Roy Minear (Casey)
91 mins, 8,085 feet, sound, black & white.

Why are we so keen to find it?

Chiefly because it's the work of Vernon Sewell, a hardworking, much underrated British director perhaps best known for the excellent thriller Strongroom (1962) and a string of variable horror films (The Blood Beast Terror, 1968; Curse of the Crimson Altar, 1968; Burke & Hare, 1972). The year before The World Owes Me a Living, Sewell had worked for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Archers company on The Silver Fleet (1943). In 'The British 'B' Film', Steve Chibnall and Brian MacFarlane suggest that Sewell "has the strongest claim to auteur status in that his films exhibit certain consistencies of theme and treatment that are distinctive among his peers and across different production companies." Even his most seemingly mundane and threadbare productions have moments of interest making the recovery of this lost wartime drama all the more desirable.

What's it about?

This synopsis is taken from Kine Weekly (11 January 1945):

"Air Commodore Paul Collyer, senior R.A.F. officer, crashes on June 4, 1944, while carrying important information and is knocked out. An attractive woman named Moira rushes to his side while his memory gropes into the past. He is then seen as a member of a flying circus, together with Chuck, a breezy Canadian, and Jack Graves, a fellow who takes life and flying seriously. Paul meets Moira, a wealthy flying enthusiast, and they become more than buddies, while Jack marries Eve, a girl who once had a crush on Paul.

Jack and Eve don't hit it off too well, and Eve eventually has an affair with Gerald Fraser, a disillusioned last-war flyer. Gerald invents a glider, but Eve's sudden death causes friction between him and Jack. However, all ends well with the Government's adoption of Gerald's invention and the enlistment of the boys in the R.A.F. At this juncture Paul wakes up and lo and behold! Moira turns out to be his wife. There are a couple of kids too!"

Does anything survive?

The film does still seem to exist on VHS and DVD-R (it's being offered by a Canadian online dealer), but the all-important negatives and 35mm prints are now missing. The BFI holds a small pressbook and some stills.

Reviews

Reviews of The World Owes Me a Living are few are far between, and those there are are a little discouraging: Kine Weekly hailed supporting actress Judy Campbell as having "all the makings of a big screen star" but was dismissive of just about everything else:

"The gist of the story is timidly revealed in the last reel, but the build-up, with its sketchy romantic interludes, many aimless flights and repeated pub-crawls, is neither good drama nor much of a compliment to the pioneers of British aviation. There is, of course, a possibility that the ragged, dishevelled continuity may be due to the fact that it mirrors the disordered mind and memory of the unconscious her, but if so it is carrying subtlety a little too far."

Kevin Lyons, Filmographic Unit, BFI National Library

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.