Chapter 9: Korda and MGM

1. And the decision would likely have been even more emphatic if he could have predicted the fate of The Road Back over the coming months.

2. Sherriff, R.C., Three Comrades: Summary of Chapters, 30 October 1936, AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Turner/MGM Scripts, Three Comrades (1938) – T 1212.

3. Sherriff, R.C., Notes on the Script of Three Comrades, February 1937, AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Turner/MGM Scripts, Three Comrades (1938) – T 1213.

4. Letter from Joseph Breen to Louis B. Mayer, 11 May 1937, AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Three Comrades, (1938), PCA File.

5. Letter to Otto Klement, 9 June 1937, SHC 3813/1/12.

6. In the event, even Fitzgerald’s screenplay did not sit well with Mankiewicz, who rewrote sections of it himself, remarking in the process that ‘I personally have been attacked [by the literary world] as if I had spat on the flag. … If I go down at all in literary history, in a footnote, it will be as the swine who rewrote F. Scott Fitzgerald.’ See Dumont, H., Frank Borzage: The Life and Films of a Hollywood Romantic; McFarland, 2006.

7. Ibid.

8. Variety, 26 June 1937.

9. Saville was a year older than Sherriff, and another First World War veteran. He had worked in the film industry since the war ended, including stints as a director at Gaumont-British, working for Balcon. He set up his own production company – Victor Saville Productions – along with scriptwriter Ian Dalrymple, and made several films at Denham for Korda.

10. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.294.

11. Lajos Biro, Korda’s scenario chief (another Hungarian, with extensive film industry and scriptwriting experience) dropped him a line to reassure him: ‘Only two lines to ask you not to worry about the waste of time over your work with D’Arrast. Everybody knows it was not your fault, Alex in the first place.’ Letter from Lajos Biro to Sherriff, 14 May 1937, SHC 3813/1/62.

12. Letter from Sherriff to Lajos Biro, 4 June 1937, SHC 3813/1/62.

13. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.309.

14. Sherriff owned two houses in Bognor (Lapwing and Fieldfare), before having Sandmartin built from August 1936–July 1937.

15. Letter from Sherriff to Nigel Nicolson, 26 April 1969, SHC 2332/1/1/27. In fact, a rather grand palace was unearthed in 1960 in Fishbourne, just 10 miles away from Selsey.

16. Nicolson, N., Long Life, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997, p.223.

17. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.313.

18. Wren, P.C., The Man of a Ghost, Remploy Reprint Edition, 1973 (orig 1937), p.23.

19. The title comes from a well-known poem by Kipling entitled Gentleman-rankers, about exofficers who had fallen on hard times and re-enlisted as rankers – ordinary soldiers – to scratch out a living. The poem records their dissatisfactions and despair.

20. Letter from Sherriff to Sydney Carroll, 20 September 1937, SHC 3813/1/47.

21. Glancy, H. Mark, op. cit., 1999, p.81.

22. Brown, G., Launder and Gilliat, British Film Institute, 1977, p.82.

23. His experience included working for Howard Hughes on Hell’s Angels and Dawn Patrol.

24. He visited the Hendon air pageant, and the airfields at Kenley and Felixstowe. AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Elmer Dyer papers, 2.f-56 and 2.f-57.

25. The film was released in November 1939, and starred Ralph Richardson and Merle Oberon. It was the product of many talented hands, including Alexander Korda, Michael Powell, Adrian Brunel and Ian Dalrymple.

26. Known as Cargo of Innocence in the UK.

27. Glancy, H. Mark, Hollywood and Britain: MGM and the British Quota Legislation, in Richards, J., The Unknown 1930s: An Alternative History of the British Cinema, 1929–1939, L.B. Tauris, 1998, p.68.

28. Glancy, H. Mark, op. cit., 1999, p.83.

29. Sherriff liked the script, and the film was a great box office success. But critics were less kind about it.

30. The egg-laying charts in his papers speak eloquently to his knowledge of poultry.

31. In 1958, Sherriff would produce a shortened version of the story for Pan books, entitled The Cataclysm.

32. Moorcock, M., Preface; in Sherriff, R.C., The Hopkins Manuscript, Persephone Press, 2005.

33. Sourced from his reply to Mollie Cazalet, 4 January 1939, SHC 3813/1/44.

34. In fact, his library contained A History of The Kings of England by Geoffrey of Monmouth, given to him, and inscribed, by Mrs Chamberlain.

35. Letter from Mollie Cazalet to Sherriff, 21 September 1938, SHC 3813/1/44. The letter was written after Chamberlain’s visit to Berchtesgaden, but before his trip to Munich later that month.

36. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.290.

37. Variety magazine announced, in January of 1937, that Oliver H.P. Garrett (a very experienced American scriptwriter) was leaving for England to write The Four Feathers. No trace of that original script (if there was one) can be found, however, and he received no writing or story credit for the film. Nothing in Sherriff ’s account (or those of Korda’s biographers) suggests that Sherriff was reworking an existing script.

38. The Four Feathers, Revised Draft Script, June 1938, SHC 2332/3/6/14.

39. The Manchester Guardian, 19 April 1939.

40. In No Leading Lady, Sherriff recalls talking to A.E.W. Mason about the screenplay, and that Mason felt Sherriff had not adapted the character of Fanshawe from the novel especially well. Sherriff smiled at Mason’s protestations, noting that there was no Fanshawe in the book at all. We, in turn, can smile at Sherriff, since there is no Fanshawe in the movie either.

41. Wimperis was some twenty years older than Sherriff, and had fought in the Boer War and the First World War. He had written for theatre and lyrics for songs and musicals (including the First World War recruiting song I’ll Make a Man of You) before going on to write for movies. He worked closely with Biro for Korda in the 1930s, and then for MGM in the 1940s, and would win an Academy Award for Mrs Miniver.

42. See, for example, Sherriff ’s letter to Eileen Corbett, Zoltan Korda’s assistant, p.6: ‘Wimp[eris] to write line for General Burroughs to open the scene at the Crimea dinner party. Remind Wimp that Burroughs must be comic relief, and all the menacing lines directed to intimidate the boy must come from General Faversham or some other guest who is not funny.’ Letter from Sherriff to Eileen Corbett (Assistant to Zoltan Korda), 20 July 1938, SHC 3813/1/30.

43. Memo from Major C.D. Armstrong, Officer Commanding Film Camp, 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, SHC ESR/2/8/10.

44. There are excellent accounts of the camp, from both the Army and the filmmakers’ perspectives, in the Journal of the East Surrey Regiment, May 1939, SHC J/553/70.

45. Told to the author, in turn, by Chris Manning-Press, Sherriff ’s godson.

46. Borradaille, O., and Hadley, A.B., Life Through a Lens, McGill-Queen’s University Press 2001, p.108. Borradaille and the principal cinematographer, Georges Périnal, would both be nominated for an Academy Award in 1939 for their work on the film, although they would lose out (as almost everyone did that year) to Gone with the Wind.

47. Shute, N., Ruined City, Pan Books, London, 1973. Also known as Kindling in the American edition.

48. His first payment was logged in his cash book in September 1938.

49. Ruined City, January 1939, SHC 2332/3/6/16. The script is subtitled ‘Revisions’, and from some of the notes inside it is clear that it is at least a second draft, if not later. There are a number of inherent contradictions in the script, and several ‘montage’ sequences that are offered almost as menus from which Victor Saville is invited to choose.

50. Letter from Maurice Browne to Dorothy Elmhirst, 9 July 1937, DHC, DHTA, DWE/4/14C.

51. Probably in February, judging by the first payment in his cash book.

52. SHC 2332/3/1/1/4.

53. See page 28.

54. Or Ben Goetz, depending on reports.

55. See the Jules Furthman papers at the Margaret Herrick library (20.f-173), and the revised script at the University of South Carolina, James Furthman Screenplay Archive, Box 5, Furthman A.5.17.

56. The Observer, 26 March 1939.

57. The Spectator, 2 April 1939.

58. Punch, 12 April 1939.

59. Country Life, 15 April 1939.

60. The Sketch, 12 April 1939.

61. Daily Sketch, 1 April 1939.

62. For a detailed analysis of the financial issues behind the establishment of Korda’s new company, see Drazin, C., op. cit., 2011, pp.196–203.

63. Letter from Bleck to Sherriff, 13 March 1939, SHC 3813/1/38. It is probably this contract that Sherriff recalled when he wrote No Leading Lady, in which (p.289) he suggested that Korda was paying him £6,000 per screenplay. His cash books show, however, that the contracts with Korda were always specified as a weekly salary.

64. Letter from Bleck to Sherriff, 15 March 1939, SHC 3813/1/38.

65. News Chronicle, 18 April 1930.

66. The Times, 18 April 1939.

67. The Observer, 23 April 1939.

68. The Spectator, 28 April 1939.

69. The Manchester Guardian, 19 April 1939.

70. New York Sun, 4 August 1939.

71. Saville had taken over as head of MGM-British when Michael Balcon had quit, owing to his frustrations at interference from Louis B. Mayer and the parent studio.

72. Letter from Sherriff to Victor Saville, 19 July 1938, SHC 3813/1/30.

73. Letter from Saville to Sherriff, 24 November 1938, SHC 3813/1/30.

74. Hilton, J., Goodbye, Mr Chips, Coronet Books, 2001, p.10.

75. Amusingly, in the film, when Chips is showing one of the new boys the commemorative arch on which boys inscribe their names, we see the name of Sir William Howe: one has to admire the boy who knew, at such an early age, that he was going to be knighted!

76. Quoted by Hilton in a letter to Sherriff, 1 May 1939, SHC 3813/1/39.

77. Letter from Sherriff to Hilton, 15 May 1939, SHC 3813/1/39.

78. The author’s examination suggests that the amount of his script remaining is closer to 25 per cent than 8 per cent.

79. SNC 2332 2332/3/7/7/1.

80. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.318.

81. Letter from Warre-Dymond to Sherriff, 25 March 1939, SHC 3813/1/56.

82. Letter from Warre-Dymond to Sherriff, 8 April 1939, SHC 3813/1/56.

83. Details of former comrades’ activities in the war are taken from Lucas, M., op. cit., 2012.

84. Letter from Peg Stoker to Sherriff, 29 October 1939, SHC 3813/1/51.

85. Letter from Mollie Cazalet to Sherriff, 8 September 1939, SHC 3813/1/17.

86. Letter from Sherriff to Korda, 14 September 1939, SHC 3813/1/38.

87. AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Paul Kohner Agency records, Manon Lescaut script, 125-f.115.

88. Glasgow Evening Times, 24 August 1939.

89. Letter from Sherriff to Pascal, 18 October 1939, SHC 3813/1/53.

90. Letter from Sherriff to David Michael de Rueda Winser, 12 November 1939, SHC 3813/1/48. Winser was later killed in action as a member of the RAMC, attached to 48 Royal Marine Commando, on 1 November 1944.

91. See Drazin, C., op. cit., 2011, pp.221–9.

92. See Aldgate, A., and Richards, J., Britain Can Take It: The British Cinema in the Second World War, I.B. Tauris, 2007, pp.22–3.

93. Letter from Sherriff to Pascal, 2 October 1939, SHC 3813/1/53.

94. General John Beith, a successful author and First World War veteran, was Director of Public Relations at the War Office.

95. Letter from Sherriff to Marjorie Deans, 18 October 1939, SHC 3813/1/53.

96. Letter from Sherriff to Peg Stoker, 13 November 1939, SHC 3813/1/50.

97. The film and the script would carry on in development without him, so that when it was finally distributed in May 1941, his name was not attached to the writing credits.

98. Daily Sketch, 24 April 1939.

99. Formerly Joseph Kenworthy, an ex-naval man and Labour MP, who became Labour Chief Whip in the House of Lords after assuming the hereditary title of Baron Strabolgi.

100. The story was, eventually, made into a movie in 1956, The Battle of the River Plate, by Powell & Pressburger.

101. SHC 2332/3/6/17.

102. No Leading Lady, op. cit., pp.319–20.

103. Letter from Sherriff to A. Flavell, 28 March 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

104. As Drazin, op. cit., 2011, p.232, points out, Leigh and Olivier made ‘for perfect casting as the two lovers, since they were both at the height of their Hollywood stardom and, like their characters in the film, had themselves been engaged in a highly public affair.’

105. For example, arranging new passports and visas as late as 22 May 1940. See the letter to Sherriff from Northern Transport Travel Bureau, 22 May 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

106. Letter from Canadian Pacific Railway Company, 24 May 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

107. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.318.

Chapter 10: Semi-Official Business

1. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.326.

2. SHC 2332/1/1/11.

3. Letter from Cowley to Sherriff, 13 June 1939, SHC 3813/1/50.

4. See Nagorski, T., Miracles on the Water, Hachette, 2015.

5. Émigrés from the United Kingdom were only allowed to take about £10 each owing to exchange restrictions, although it was possible to take more, with the appropriate permits, or to take additional travellers’ cheques. (Letter from Canadian Pacific Railway Company, 24 May 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.)

6. Letter from Basil Bleck to Sherriff, 1 June 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

7. Cable from Sig Marcus to Sherriff, 12 June 1940, SHC 2352/1/1/11.

8. See cash book, 2332/4/1/5, p.100.

9. Itinerary from Canadian Pacific Railway Company, undated, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

10. Cable from Sig Marcus, 12 June 1940, op. cit.

11. The hotel had no religious connotations. Its original owner was Alla Nazimova, and when she sold the hotel the new owners added an ‘h’ at the end.

12. The film was released in December 1940, and starred Robert Taylor and Walter Pidgeon. It has some good flight scenes, but otherwise is a fairly conventional action movie.

13. Reisch started in Austria, but then moved to Germany where he worked with Erich Pommer (coincidentally alongside Billy Wilder). He returned to Vienna but left as the Nazis grew in power, heading first for London – where he worked with Korda – and then on to the United States, where he settled with MGM.

14. See Drazin, C., op. cit., 2011, p.233.

15. Capua, Michelangelo, Vivien Leigh: A Biography, McFarland, 2003, p.79.

16. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.335.

17. Letter from Breen to George Bagnall (of Alexander Korda Films Inc), 16 September 1940. AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Production Code Administration records, That Hamilton Woman (1941), (henceforth That Hamilton Woman (1941) PCA File).

18. Letter from Breen to Korda, 19 September 1940, That Hamilton Woman (1941) PCA File.

19. Letter from Breen to Korda, 15 October 1940, That Hamilton Woman (1941) PCA File.

20. Letter from Breen to Korda, 30 October 1940, That Hamilton Woman (1941) PCA File.

21. Drazin, C., op. cit., 2011, p.235.

22. SHC 2332/5/2/87.

23. There is a nice tale in Michael Korda’s biography of the Korda brothers, to the effect that Alex Korda, desperate to know which arm Nelson lost before shooting began, consulted an actor in Los Angeles who had played Nelson on stage. He was no wiser after meeting him, however, for the actor said he had changed arms in different performances to make things more interesting for himself. See Korda, M., Charmed Lives, Allen Lane, 1980, p.151.

24. The scenes were filmed mainly in a large tank, with model boats, about the size of dinghies, being pushed by discreetly concealed prop men in fishing waders.

25. That Hamilton Woman (1941), about 92 minutes into the film.

26. Calder, R., Beware the British Serpent: The Role of Writers in British Propaganda in the United States, 1939–1945, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004, p.251.

27. New York Times, 4 April 1941.

28. Korda, M., op. cit., 1980, p.154.

29. See Calder, R., op. cit., 2004, p.251.

30. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.338.

31. The penname of author Joyce Maxtone Graham.

32. Letter from Kenneth McKenna to Sherriff, 5 October 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

33. Quoted in Glancy, H. Mark, op. cit., 1999, p.142.

34. In what he described as a kind of ‘notebook’, to which they could add or subtract as they worked on the project. See Notes from R.C. Sherriff, 6 November 1940 (AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Turner/MGM Scripts, Mrs Miniver, 1942). He also appears to have scripted two possible scenes in advance of producing the notebook, neither of which made it into the movie. SHC 2332/3/6/18/ 1 & 2.

35. Mrs Miniver Prologue Script, by R.C. Sherriff, 7 November 1940, AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Turner/MGM Scripts, Mrs Miniver (1942).

36. In fact, James Hilton sent him a clipping in which the actress Laraine Day described it as her ‘favourite movie scene’. Sherriff replied to Hilton noting that it brought back pleasant memories of their time working on the film with Sydney Franklin, ‘who used to turn up at conferences some mornings completely dressed as an Old Etonian and next morning as an Old Marlburian.’ SHC 2332/1/1/17.

37. Given that he first wrote a ‘prologue’ scene, and that in the final movie the ‘hat scene’ is the first one, the two may have become mistakenly conflated.

38. Letter from Sidney Franklin to Sherriff, 5 May 1942, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

39. Minutes of meeting, 21 August 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11. The committee later became known, more simply, as the British War Services Advisory Board. It was eventually wound up in January 1945, when Cleugh was posted to Cuba. (See his letter to Sherriff, 16 January 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/15.)

40. Picturegoer and Film Weekly, 27 January 1940.

41. Picturegoer and Film Weekly, 11 May 1940.

42. Balcon confessed his sins in his biography: ‘It may be that I was at times mildly jealous of [Korda’s] popularity and his achievements, and certainly I misunderstood his departure to Hollywood, with other members of his family, early in the Second World War. I was wrong then about Korda, but perhaps not so wrong about some of the others who left with unseemly haste immediately before or after the war began. Korda was generous in his forgiveness of one or two unseemly cracks I made.’ Balcon, M., op. cit., 1969, pp.93–4.

43. The Times, 24 May 1940.

44. The Sunday Despatch, 25 August 1940. Quoted in Morley, S., op. cit., 1983, p.166.

45. Minutes of meeting, 28 August 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

46. Glancy (1999) writes that a Variety article in July 1940, which was supportive of the Hollywood Brits, gave a shortlist of well-known actors who had fought in the First World War, and had noted that C. Aubrey Smith was ‘old enough to have drawn a longbow at Hastings’.

47. Minutes of meeting, 28 August 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

48. Cable from Lord Lothian to Lord Halifax, 31 August 1940, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

49. Calder, R., op. cit., 2004, p.247.

50. As told to the author by Christopher Manning-Press.

51. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.340–1.

52. See letter to Richard West, 24 March 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14

53. The pen name of Eric Andrew Simson, British writer and one-time Navy officer.

54. AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Turner/MGM Scripts, Stand By For Action (1943) – Story Outline by R.C. Sherriff, 12-20-40.

55. Actually, Cargo of Innocents in the print at the British Film Institute.

56. New York Times, 12 March, 1943.

57. Letter to Harvey Haislip, 9 January 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14.

58. Letter from Sherriff to Victor Cazalet, 24 June 1941, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

59. On Monday, 7 July 1941.

60. Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.

61. Some of the work he had done for MGM in the late 1930s showed the same ability, but it’s unlikely that Zanuck would have known about those unproduced screenplays.

62. The studio memos are quoted in Glancy, H.M., op. cit., 1999, pp.135–42.

63. One of whom, her uncle, was played by an old friend of Sherriff ’s – Melville Cooper, who had played Trotter in the original Journey’s End.

64. AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Production Code Administration Files, This Above All (1942). Henceforth, This Above All, (1942), PCA File.

65. In fact, he was known for putting in extra lines that he would then allow the PCA to force him to omit, distracting them from other sections that he would prefer to keep. See Wilk, M., op. cit., 2004, p.119.

66. Letter from Zanuck to Shurlock, 10 November 1941, This Above All, (1942), PCA File.

67. Letter from Knight to Paul Rotha. Rotha, P., (Ed.), Portrait of a Flying Yorkshireman: Letters from Eric Knight in the United States to Paul Rotha in England, Chapman & Hall, 1952.

68. The speech takes place 65:03 minutes into the film.

69. Letter from Sherriff to Cazalet, 22 September 1941, SHC 2332/1/1/11. This is the last exchange of correspondence Sherriff seems to have had with Cazalet, who died in a plane crash in 1943.

70. Memo from Zanuck to Sherriff, 27 November 1941, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

71. New York Times, 13 May 1942.

72. See Glancy, H. Mark, op. cit., 1999, p.141.

73. Variety, 6 January 1943.

74. Letter from James Hilton to Sherriff, 22 January 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

75. SHC 2332/1/1/11.

76. SHC 2332/3/6/2/2.

77. This may have been the one he referred to in a letter to Harold Boxall at Korda Film Productions on 22 December 1939, SHC 3813/1/38.

78. Letter from Sherriff to Alan Collins, 14 November 1942, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

79. With a contract beginning towards the end of May, and still paying $1,400 a week. See the letter from George Stephenson to Sherriff, 10 April 1942, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

80. Letter from Sherriff to Gerald Ellison, 28 November 1941, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

81. SHC 2332/3/6/23.

82. Watts, S., The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, University of Missouri Press, 2013, p.236.

83. Letter to James Hilton from Sherriff, 28 September 1942, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

84. See Glancy, H. Mark, op. cit., 1999, p.170.

85. See the exchange of letters between Ellison and Sherriff, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

86. Report on This Changing World, 31 December 1941, UCLA Files, Forever and a Day.

87. See Glancy, H., Mark op. cit., 1999, p.179.

88. Letter from Harold Butler, to Sherriff, 2 November 1942, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

89. Letter from Sherriff to Harold Butler, 10 November 1942, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

90. Last seen, in this book, toiling for the PCA in 1932. (See Chapter 7.)

91. Letter from Sig Marcus, 12 January 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

92. SHC 2332/3/5/3/2.

93. A couple of years later, having heard that Warners might be interested in buying the project from Fox, Sherriff asked his agent what was happening. The reply came back from Hugh King at Myron Selznick that it was still on Bob Bassler’s schedule at Fox: he was keen to produce it, but had not yet been given the go-ahead (SHC 2332/1/1/15). Finding the money for new productions after the war was difficult, and Chedworth would simply have been one project among many competing for resources. It had the added disadvantage of a very obvious and specific wartime setting, and as soon as the war was over studios reached out for other subjects, convinced the public had had enough.

94. Letter from Sherriff to Collins, 2 December 1942, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

95. Letter to Alan Collins, 8 February 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

96. Cable from Curtis Brown to Sherriff, 18 February 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

97. Quoted in a letter from Sherriff to Curtis Brown, 19 February 1943, but marked not sent.

98. Cable from Curtis Brown to Sherriff, 23 February 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

99. Cable from Curtis Brown to Sherriff, 10 March 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

100. Letter from Sherriff to Spencer Curtis Brown, 12 March 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

101. Letter to Alan Collins, 1 March 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

102. Letter to G.R.G. Radcliffe from Sherriff, 20 April 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

103. Soskin eventually found someone else to write the screenplay, and production began later in 1943, with Osmond Borradaille hired to film dramatic aerial sequences over the countryside near Shrewsbury. But, for no very obvious reason, the production was cancelled indefinitely soon after the air sequences had been shot. ‘To my deep disappointment,’ wrote Borradaille, ‘the film was never completed and I do not know what happened to our negatives.’ Borradaille, O., op. cit., 2001, p.150.

104. It might have been finished much later, for when his plane was shot up in 1941, and the crew were ordered to discard unnecessary weight, he successfully managed to hold on to the manuscript of the play’s first act.

105. SHC 2332/3/6/25.

106. SHC 2332/3/7/7/1.

107. Elements from Flare Path did, however, make their way into the impressive, Rattigan-scripted British movie, The Way to the Stars, in 1945.

108. Letter from LA Consulate to Consulate General in New York, 12 June 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

109. Letter from Sherriff to Barclays Bank manager, Esher, 3 January 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

110. Letter from Sherriff to Reeves Espy, 9 May 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/13.

111. SHC 2332/4/1/6.

112. Letter from Sherriff to C.L. Hill, 28 September 1943, SHC 2332/1/1/13.

113. Letter from Sherriff to Alan Collins, 3 January 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/13.

114. Contract with Macmillans, 29 February 1944, SHC 2332/4/6.

115. He later wrote to Harold Latham, vice president at Macmillan, that: ‘I wrote [the book] under rather difficult conditions, the last part of it while waiting in New York for a ship to England, never knowing when I should have to pack up and rush away to the docks at a few hours’ notice.’ (Letter from Sherriff to Harold Latham, 15 March 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14.) Of course, he was exaggerating for effect – the manuscript was completed in California, where he knew he would receive at least a week or two’s notice – but Sherriff never let anything get in the way of a good story.

116. Her first, written under the pseudonym of C.L. Anthony.

117. She came, at his invitation, to the West End premiere of St Helena, and had afterwards written him a fulsome letter in praise of it. SHC 3813/1/60.

118. His salary was roughly twice what they were paying the (soon to become) famous Ayn Rand, who was on a screenwriting contract with them at the same time. (Contract details are contained in the Warner Brothers archive, Specific Assignment Reports.)

119. See Drazin, C., op. cit., 2011, p.255.

120. Telegram from Sherriff to Korda, date unknown, but likely April/May 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/12.

121. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.340.

122. Letter from Sherriff to Reeves Espy, 9 May 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/13.

123. Letter from Hugh King to Sherriff, 4 April 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/13.

124. Letter from C.L. Hill to Sherriff, 26 June 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

125. Draft cable, written on a letter to Sherriff from C.L. Hill, 28 June 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/11.

Chapter 11: Back to Blighty

1. Letters to Harvey Haislip, 9 January 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14, and to Frank Hodsoll, 31 May 1945 (SHC 2332/1/1/15).

2. Letter from Sherriff to Reeves Espy, 10 February 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14.

3. Letter from Alice Head to Sherriff, 2 February 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14.

4. Stern, G.B., Trumpet Voluntary, Cassell & Co, 1944.

5. Letter from E.W. Greene to Sherriff, 28 October 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/13.

6. The Saturday Review, 4 November 1944.

7. Chicago Daily News, 11 October 1944.

8. New York Herald Tribune, 15 October 1944.

9. Chicago Tribune, 15 October 1944.

10. The Commonweal, 1 December 1944.

11. Letter from Jean Curtis-Brown to Sherriff, 20 November 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/14.

12. Letter from Jean Curtis-Brown to Sherriff, 23 November 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/14.

13. Letter from Victor Gollancz to Sherriff, 7 December 1944, SHC 2332/1/1/13.

14. Reader’s Report on Chedworth, contained in letter from Spencer Curtis Brown to Sherriff, 29 June 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/15.

15. Letter from Sherriff to Spencer Curtis Brown, 19 July 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/16.

16. Letter from Alice Head to Sherriff, 9 April 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/15.

17. Tabori, P., Alexander Korda, Oldbourne, London, 1959, p.10.

18. University of London Senate House Library, Special Collections. Paul Tabori Film Scripts. MS 1006/5/5.

19. Tabori urges him in one comment to examine the photos of Cologne.

20. Dalrymple was seven years Sherriff ’s junior, but was a very experienced film-maker, having worked in the industry since the late 1920s, mainly with Gainsborough and Gaumont-British, and with Victor Saville. He had been a producer for the Crown Film unit during the war, and had been nominated for an Academy Award for his adaption of The Citadel in 1938.

21. Letter from Ian Dalrymple to Sherriff, 10 August 1945. SHC 2332/1/1/16,

22. Tabori, P., op. cit., 1959, p.13.

23. Letter from Sherriff to Alice Head, 5 April 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/15.

24. Letter from Alice Head to Sherriff, 9 April 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/15.

25. Letter from Sherriff to Alice Head, 12 April 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/15.

26. Letter from Sherriff to Bundy, 9 January 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14.

27. Letter from Bundy to Sherriff, 16 January 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/14.

28. See David Hatten’s letter to Sherriff, 15 August 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/16.

29. See, for example, letters to Charles Feldman, 11 October 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/17, and to Colin Tennant on 15 November 1945, SHC 2332/1/1/18.

30. Letter from Sherriff to David Henley, 17 May 1945. SHC 2332/1/1/15.

31. She had enlisted in the Women’s Royal Naval Service.

32. Letter from Sherriff to Ben Goetz, 30 January 1946, SHC 2332/1/1/18.

33. The film was written by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov, and is the story of a group of army recruits coming together during training, and shipping out to fight the Germans in North Africa. It is an excellent picture, although I am not entirely unbiased because my father had a role in one of the training scenes in the film, albeit enclosed in his Sherman tank.

34. Letter from Sherriff to Colin Tennant, 8 January 1946, SHC 2332/1/1/18.

35. It excludes, for example, an important scene that was in the film, in which Johnny is helped by two older women, Rosie and Maude.

36. Letter from Sherriff to Reed, 21 June 1946, SHC 2332/1/1/18.

37. SHC 2332/4/1/7.

38. Letter from Alice Head to Sherriff, 22 January 1946, SHC 2332/1/1/18.

39. Letter from Sherriff to Alice Head, 26 January 1946, SHC 2332/1/1/18.

40. Which it did. The Farm is still in the hands of the National Trust, although leased to a local farmer.

41. Cash book, SHC 2332/4/1/3.

42. David Leslie Murray had been editor of the Times Literary Supplement from 1938–45, and was also well known as a novelist.

43. Letter from Sherriff to D.L. Murray, 10 January 1947, SHC 2332/1/1/20.

44. Glasgow Sunday Mail, 23 March 1947, SHC 2332/5/2/16.

45. Whose real name was Winifred Ashton.

46. Draft letter from Sherriff to Korda, undated, but probably early 1947, SHC 2332/1/1/30.

47. Letter from Sherriff to Alan Wood, 4 May 1951, SHC 2332/1/1/26.

48. He would, in fact, sell it in 1948, having barely lived in it.

49. Letter from Sherriff to Colin Tennant (Myron Selznick, London), 25 April 1947, SHC 2332/1/1/20.

50. Box, aged forty, had originally been a writer who had moved into films during the 1930s, and set up a documentary production company during the war. He moved into more general film production as the war drew to a close, and had a big hit with The Seventh Veil. After the war he was hired by Rank to run, and expand, Gainsborough Studios.

51. Letter from Sherriff to Lt Col Drake-Brockman, 11 July 1947, SHC 3813/1/77.

52. Letter from Sherriff to MCA (his agents), 15 August 1947, SHC 3813/1/76.

53. The film starred Mai Zetterling in a tale about an RAF flyer who brings home to England the German woman who helped him escape, only for their lives to be upended when her unrepentantly Nazi brother arrives to join her.

54. Letter from Sherriff to Robin Fox, 22 August 1947, SHC 3813/1/76.

55. Memo from Joe Mankiewicz to Darryl Zanuck, 3 September 1946, AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, Joseph Mankiewicz Collection: Escape, Correspondence Folder No. 156.

56. See in particular, a very funny letter from Mankiewicz to Bill Perlberg (the producer), on 2 October 1947, which includes the rather emphatic line: ‘J. Arthur and his cohorts are really slipping us the finger, Bill … what they have handed us are the crummiest barrel-scrapings of the entire rank Rank outfit.’ Escape, Correspondence Folder No. 156, op. cit.

57. SHC 2332/3/6/27.

58. See letter from Sherriff to Mankiewicz, 12 September 1947, in Escape Correspondence Folder No. 156, op. cit.

59. Daily Mail, 1 December 1947, SHC 2332/5/2/63.

60. Maugham, W. Somerset, and Sherriff, R.C., Quartet, Heinemann’s, 1948.

61. Ibid.

62. Ibid.

63. Ibid.

64. Maugham, W. Somerset, The Collected Stories, Volume Two, The Reprint Society, London1954.

65. The other two short stories in Trio were The Verger and Mr Knowall.

66. AMPAS, Margaret Herrick Library, PCA Files, Quartet, 1948.

67. See, for example, The Glasgow Herald, 3 January 1949.

68. Ibid.

69. Spicer, A., Sydney Box, Manchester University Press, 2006, p.119.

70. Ibid.

71. Indeed, in the film, which uses the old device of an opened book to suggest that the story comes straight from its pages, the story begins with George’s twenty-first birthday, about twenty-four pages into a forty-six-page story.

72. See Variety, 3 November 1948.

73. See Annakin, K.: So You Wanna Be A Director?, Tomahawk Press, 2001.

74. The Glasgow Herald, 3 January 1949.

75. New York Times, 29 March 1949.

76. Letter from G.B. Stern to Sherriff, 1 November 1948, SHC 2332/1/1/22.

77. Encore featured the stories The Ant and the Grasshopper, Winter Cruise and Gigolo and Gigolette.

78. Letter from Sherriff to Ian Dalrymple, 28 May 1946, SHC 2332/1/1/19.

79. Letter from Sherriff to Evans, 17 May 1946, SHC 2332/1/1/19.

80. Letter from Sherriff to Spencer Curtis Brown, 17 January 1947, SHC 2332/1/1/20.

81. Letter from Sherriff to Curtis Brown, 24 January 1947, SHC 2332/1/1/20.

82. Gollancz would still publish one or two of his new plays, and ultimately, his autobiography and his final novel, The Siege of Swayne Castle.

83. The Sunday Times, 8 February 1948.

84. The Daily Telegraph, 20 February 1948.

85. In a clipping from an unknown paper, SHC 2332/5/2/12.

86. The Times, 21 February 1948.

87. The Manchester Guardian, 20 February 1948.

88. The Sunday Chronicle, 15 February 1948.

89. The Observer, 22 February 1948.

90. John O’London’s Weekly, 20 February 1948.

91. Letter from Madge Duncan to Sherriff, 21 August 1947, SHC 3813/1/76.

92. Letter from Sherriff to Madge Duncan, 22 August 1947, SHC 3813/1/76.

93. What Happened After. Script for Broadcast on BBC Women’s Hour, 25 June 1948, SHC 2332/3/4/5.

94. Letter from David Hatten to Sherriff, 21 May 1948, SHC 2332/1/1/21.

95. Radio Times, 16 March 1961.

96. Brighton Gazette, 2 October 1948.

97. Brighton Herald, 2 October 1948.

98. Letter from Sherriff to Charlie Hamilton, 15 October 1948, SHC 2332/1/1/22.

99. At Birmingham it was playing to houses of over £200 a night. Letter from Sherriff to Charlie Hamilton, op. cit.

100. See Interview with Christopher Manning-Press, SHC 9314/4/7.

101. Punch, 1 December 1948.

102. Daily Herald, 24 November 1948.

103. The Times, 24 November 1948.

104. John O’London’s Weekly, 10 December 1948.

105. Liverpool Post, 25 November 1948.

106. Ludmilla Pitoeff had a previous tenuous link with Sherriff, insofar as Maurice Browne used some of his proceeds from Journey’s End to employ Pitoeff and her husband, Edouard, in an international season in London in 1930.

107. A spiritualist belief, in which an individual’s hands may be guided without conscious thought – typically by supernatural forces. The efforts are sometimes aided by use of a Ouija board, or a ‘planchette’.

108. SHC 2332/3/6/29.

109. Letter from Darryl Zanuck to Bob Bassler, 11 August 1949, SHC 2332/1/1/23.

110. Letter from Sherriff to Lighton, 16 September 1949, SHC 2332/1/1/23.

111. SHC 2332/1/2/1.

112. Letter from Sherriff to E.J. King-Bull, 4 July 1947, SHC 3813/1/76.

113. Letter from E.J. King-Bull to Sherriff, 9 July 1947, SHC 3813/1/76.

114. Letter from Sherriff to King-Bull, 11 July 1947, SHC 3813/1/76.

115. Letter from Sherriff to Gladys Day, 2 September 1949, SHC 2332/1/1/23.

116. Letter from Sherriff to G.B. Stern, 17 November 1949, SHC 2332/1/1/24.

117. Letter from Sherriff to James McHugh (agent), 25 October 1949, SHC 2332/1/1/24.

118. Letter from Sherriff to James McHugh, 14 December 1949, SHC 2332/1/1/24.

119. Los Angeles Times, 28 August 1983.

120. Millard also suggested in the article that Sherriff, himself, had been surprised by the credit. But that cannot be so. Sherriff actually asked for a copy of the shooting script in 1951, to reassure himself that enough of his work survived to justify him receiving it. Exchange of letters between Sherriff and Fred Fox, February 1951; SHC 2332/1/1/25.

121. It was released in the US in September 1951, with the title No Highway in the Sky.

122. Letter from Sherriff to Richardson, 10 November 1949.

123. Letter from Sherriff to Madeleine Clive, 12 November 1953, SHC 2332/1/3/3.

124. Letter from Sherriff to Madeleine Clive, 29 September 1953, SHC 2332/1/3/3. Clive had attempted to take Home at Seven to the US, but had problems from her very first engagement in Syracuse, with the play’s star – Paul Muni – very unhappy with the director and with the play’s last act. Clive had planned to take the production on to Broadway but was unable to do so.

125. Theatre World, May 1950.

126. The Manchester Guardian, 8 March 1950.

127. Also known as Mrs Ralph Richardson.

128. The Observer, 12 March 1950.

Chapter 12: Pinnacle

1. Labour would last just twenty more months before another election, which returned Churchill to Downing Street.

2. Finlay, R. Derek, Ten to Take Her Home, The Memoir Club, 2006, p.15. Derek Finlay would go on to study at Cambridge, and thence to management consultants McKinsey & Co, before serving in senior positions at H.J. Heinz at WHQ Pittsburgh.

3. Spicer, A., op. cit., 2006, p.121.

4. Letter from Sherriff to Victor Gollancz, 25 May 1951, SHC 2332/1/1/26.

5. See Sherriff ’s letter to Hettie Hilton, 20 April 1951, SHC 2332/1/1/25.

6. There is a detailed account of the relationship between Korda’s London Films and British Lion Films in Drazin, op. cit., 2011.

7. Brook was still in his twenties at the time, but had worked as a producer at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre for several years. He would go on to have a long and storied theatrical career.

8. Letter from Ralph Richardson to Sherriff, 5 April 1951, SHC 2332/1/7.

9. Letter from Sherriff to Richardson on 11 July 1951, SHC 2332/1/7.

10. Letter from Sherriff to Richardson, 14 November 1951, SHC 2332/1/7.

11. De Grunwald already had more than twenty screen credits to his name, including adapting Rattigan’s Winslow Boy. He also wrote the wonderful Leslie Howard wartime propaganda movie Pimpernel Smith.

12. See Hawkins, J., op. cit., 1975, pp.169–70. Hawkins mistakenly attributes the play to J.B. Priestley, rather than Sherriff.

13. The Manchester Guardian, 2 February 1952.

14. The Times, 21 January 1952.

15. Clark was a Scottish lawyer, in his mid-forties, who had been mentored by John Maxwell, who had created British International Pictures in 1927, which then became Associated British in 1933. Maxwell had encouraged Clark, a fellow Scot, to study law, and brought him down to Elstree in 1929, after he had qualified. Although Maxwell died in 1940, Clark remained with the company, becoming Executive in Charge of Production in 1948.

16. Gotfurt was a German Jewish writer who had moved to Britain to escape the Nazis. He worked in theatre and movies, achieving some success with Temptation Harbour in 1947, before moving on to become Clark’s scenario editor.

17. Brickhill, P., The Dam Busters, Pan Books, 1954 (first published in 1951).

18. See Ramsden, J., The Dam Busters, I.B. Tauris, 2003, p.25.

19. Gibson, G., Enemy Coast Ahead, Pan Books, 1955. Gibson wrote the book in the early months of 1944, before he was killed in a bombing raid later that year. It was first published in 1946.

20. See Harper, S. and Porter, V., British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference, Oxford University Press, 2007, p.82. He also, according to Harper & Porter, bought the rights to Enemy Coast Ahead, although that was not enough to prevent Gibson’s widow protesting that some of the material was used without her permission. [Variety, 10 November 1954.]

21. See The Age, 26 June 1954.

22. Dated 10 November 1951, SHC 2332/3/6/31/7. The treatment bears no names on the cover, but, given its date, was most likely written by Mycroft and Whittaker, since it roughly corresponds with the comments in Whittaker’s diary.

23. SHC 2332/3/6/31/3.

24. The idea was not entirely an invention: Brickhill noted that Spafford (one of Gibson’s crew) afterwards claimed to have had the same idea at an ENSA show.

25. SHC 2332/3/6/31/12.

26. Reprinted in The Age, 26 June 1954.

27. Which was just a quick 8-mile hop from Esher.

28. Whittaker’s diary, 22 March 1952, The Age, op. cit.

29. SHC 2332/3/6/31/9. The date of its completion is not known – but since it begins with a scene involving Wallis’s garden experiments, it suggests that it was completed after the 22 March meeting. It would have been completed at least several weeks in advance of him completing his ‘Final Complete Screenplay’, which, according to Whittaker’s diary, was in July 1952.

30. SHC 2332/3/6/31/1.

31. See his email to the author, 21 July 2016.

32. Whittaker’s diary, July 15 1952, and August 12–14, 1952. The Age, op. cit.

33. The Dam Busters, screenplay by R.C. Sherriff, 24 October 1952, SHC 2332/3/6/31/13.

34. The concept is noted in Wallis’s Top Secret memo on the bomb, which includes the following section: ‘Ricochet gunfire was known as early as the sixteenth century and was used in naval gunnery in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to extend the effective range of muzzleloading guns, firing spherical cannon balls.’ The Nelson touch was probably pure Sherriff. SHC 2332/3/6/31/1.

35. Quoted in Ramsden, J., op cit., 2003, p.47.

36. Journey’s End, op. cit., p.61.

37. Letter from Sherriff to Pips, 25 January 1917, SHC 2332/1/1/3/138. See page 38.

38. The £3,750 he was paid initially was matched by an equivalent amount in 1956.

39. Letter from Sherriff to Richardson, 24 September 1952, SHC 2332/1/7.

40. Richardson’s biographer described the season as ‘the lowest trough in [his] career’, with mixed reviews for his Volpone following hard on the heels of damning reviews in both The Tempest and Macbeth. Miller, J., Ralph Richardson: The Authorized Biography, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1995, p.158.

41. Stratford, Edinburgh, Blackpool, Southport, Hull, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Bristol. See cash book, SHC 2332/4/1/10, p.185.

42. The Tatler, 8 April 1953.

43. The Sunday Times, 22 March 1953.

44. W.A. Darlington review. SHC 2332/5/2/93.

45. Quoted in Miller, J., op. cit., p.161.

46. As Sherriff noted in No Leading Lady (p.346), Richardson took the play on a tour of the North after it left London, and did well with it.

47. Letter from Curtis Brown to Sherriff, 21 September 1953, SHC 2332/1/5/3.

48. Letter from Sherriff to Curtis Brown, 29 September 1953, SHC 2332/1/5/3.

49. Warwick Films was founded in 1951 by two experienced American producers based in London: Irving Allen and Albert (Cubby) Broccoli (later to become famous as the producer of the James Bond franchise). They had opted to operate out of the UK because it was more financially advantageous than remaining in the US, and in 1953 they began producing films in collaboration with Columbia Pictures. The first fruits of this collaboration were three pictures featuring Alan Ladd (including The Red Beret, which created something of a media firestorm because an American was playing a British paratrooper).

50. The film was directed by Mark Robson, and starred Richard Widmark as Joe, Mai Zetterling as Maria, George Cole as Roger, and Nigel Patrick as Brian. The writing credits went to Robert Buckner and John Paxton.

51. Letter from Richardson to Sherriff, 24 January 1954, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

52. The Birmingham Post, 15 April 1954.

53. Surrey Comet, 27 February 1954.

54. The Housewife, May 1954.

55. The Times Literary Supplement, 28 May 1954.

56. Letter from Mortimer Wheeler to Sherriff, 16 March 1954, SCH 2332/1/2/2.

57. BBC Children’s Hour review, SHC 2332/1/5/3.

58. Ramsden, J., op. cit., 2003, p.48.

59. Quoted in Harper, S. and Porter, V., op. cit., 2007, p.83.

60. Some of the excisions were no more than a passing shot, but others included exchanges of dialogue. The most notable cuts were those scenes in which Sherriff had tried to show Britain’s war apparatus jumping into action when the bombs and planes were finally given the go-ahead.

61. 2332/4/1/3. The cash books show the payments totalling £3,150, implying a fee of £3,500 (before commission). But in a later page in the book (p.185) listing his earnings from movie work, he shows a fee of £5,000, which was the same as he received for Prize of Gold.

62. Letter from Sherriff to Whitaker, 21 May 1954, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

63. Saturday Evening Post, 26 May 1951.

64. McFarlane, B., An Autobiography of British Cinema., Methuen, 1997, p.441. In the course of the interview he also remarked that he didn’t feel Sherriff had added anything to it.

65. Letter from Kitty Black to Sherriff, 23 September 1954, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

66. Letter from Kitty Black to Sherriff, 26 November 1954, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

67. The film was directed by King Vidor, and starred Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer and Anita Ekberg, among many others. Eight writers were credited with the screenplay (although Sherriff was not among them). It was not a success.

68. Letter from Whitaker to Sherriff, 22 February 1955, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

69. Letter from Sherriff to Black, 23 February 1955, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

70. New York Times, 20 December 1955.

71. Ibid.

72. Letter from Sherriff to Ayton Whitaker, 20 December 1956, SHC 2332/1/3/5.

73. Sherriff, R.C., The Long Sunset, Longmans, Green & Co, 1960, p.26.

74. Letter from Sherriff to Whitaker, 7 March 1955, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

75. The Daily Telegraph, 31 August 1955.

76. The Long Sunset, op. cit., p.85.

77. See page 127.

78. Letter from Richardson to Sherriff, 25 April 1954, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

79. Letter from Sherriff to Bernard Hepton, 11 August 1955.

80. See Brown, G., op. cit., 1977, p.10.

81. The Times, 25 April 1955.

82. Letter from Sherriff to Curtis Brown, 2 May 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/2.

83. At that point, just thirty years old. He would go on to an extensive career in TV and film acting, being perhaps best known for his role as the Commandant in the TV version of Colditz; and as the French café owner in Secret Army.

84. Letter from Sherriff to Gladys Day, 5 August 1955, SHC 2332/1/3/4.

85. The Illustrated London News, 10 September 1955.

86. The Stage, 1 September 1955.

87. The Manchester Guardian, 31 August 1955.

88. The Observer, 4 September 1955.

89. Plays and Players, December 1961.

90. Daily Express, 10 November 1961.

91. SHC 2332/8/13/5.

92. Ibid.

93. The Evening News, 17 May 1955.

94. The Manchester Guardian, 18 May 1955.

95. The Star, 20 May 1955.

96. The Times Weekly Review, 26 May 1955.

97. The Daily Telegraph, 21 May 1955.

98. Financial Times, 23 May 1955.

99. The Sunday Times, 22 May 1955.

100. Warner Brothers Archive, University of Southern California, The Dam Busters, 1955, agreement dated 18 April 1955.

101. Memo from Robert Clark, 19 April 1955. Warner Brothers Archive, op. cit.

102. Pre-publicity material. Warner Brothers Archive, op. cit. The dog’s name continues to present difficulties today when the film is broadcast on television. It has also been reported that a proposed remake of the movie, which has been in the works for some considerable time, is likely to feature a screenplay in which the dog’s name is changed to ‘Digger’ instead. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-13727908

103. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.349.

104. This excludes Storm over the Nile, which came out in December 1955, and was hardly ‘new’, since it was a remake of The Four Feathers, using the same script, and much of the same location footage, but different principal actors. It was directed by Terence Young, and produced by London Films.

105. SHC 2332/3/6/32/8.

106. In this case, biographies by Agnes Strickland (The Life of Mary Stuart) and Eric Linklater (Mary, Queen of Scots) among others; and plays by Schiller (Mary Stuart) and Gordon Daviot (Queen of Scots).

107. Letter from Sherriff to Fritz Gotfurt, 19 April 1955, SHC 2332/1/4/7.

108. The minutes of the script conferences make fascinating reading, and offer an insight into the process by which a script is finally drafted, SHC 2332/3/6/32/6.

109. SHC 2332/3/6/32/8.

110. He also gave a little nod to his old school. There is a brief scene in 1561 when, just before Darnley visits Elizabeth in her throne room, she is discussing royal business with her secretary, who passes her some papers asking her to sign the Charters for the new Grammar schools. Kingston Grammar School received its charter in that year by Elizabeth’s hand.

111. See Harper, S. and Porter, V., op. cit., 2007, pp.89–90.

112. And to the Gordon Daviot play on the same subject, which they had also acquired.

113. Evening Standard, 11 December 1965.

114. In the end, The White Carnation was dropped from the plans, and replaced with The Long Sunset.

115. Letter from Gielgud to Sherriff, 28 October 1955, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

116. Letter from Sherriff to Gielgud, 22 November 1955, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

117. Betty Box was Sydney Box’s sister, and a powerful, prolific and well-respected producer. She had been with Sydney at Gainsborough, which Rank closed down in 1949, in favour of moving production to Pinewood Studios.

118. Letter from Sherriff to Whitaker, 19 January 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/1.

119. Including an Official Report, and two recently published books, The Big Pick-Up, by Elleston Trevor, and Dunkirk, by Lt Col Ewan Butler and Major J.S. Bradford.

120. Dunkirk (treatment). Undated, but probably early 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

121. Letter from Sherriff to H.E. Alexander, 16 February 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

122. Where he was working on one of the other films in the MGM-Ealing slate, The Shiralee.

123. SHC 2332/3/6/38/3.

124. Memo by Michael Balcon, 19 March 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

125. Dunkirk: Notes on a Screenplay. 17 May 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

126. Letter from H.E. Alexander to Sherriff, 31 July 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

127. Letter from Fenn to Sherriff, 1 August 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

128. Letter from Fenn to Sherriff, 13 August 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

129. His property portfolio was growing ever smaller, and was now restricted to Rosebriars and Down House Farm (to which he seldom seems to have travelled), and a new property, Leeward, which he had bought in Ferring (near Worthing, on the south coast), although mainly, it seems, for the purposes of renting out.

130. Letter from Sherriff to Fenn, 22 August 1956, SHC 2332/1/4/1.

131. Letter from Sherriff to Fenn, 12 September 1956, SHC 2332/1/1/28.

132. Letter from Sherriff to Gielgud, 11 July 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

133. Letter from Sherriff to Booth, 1 July 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

134. Letter from Sherriff to Booth, 13 October 1956. SHC 2332/1/2/4.

135. The synopsis is based on the stage play. The BBC version was a good half hour shorter, and according to Sherriff, cut out Miss Fortescue altogether, and trimmed the role of the housekeeper, and the domestic scenes between Mayfield and his wife. (See Sherriff ’s letter to Booth, 13 October 1956).

136. He may have taken the name of Canbury from the part of Kingston in which the Rowing Club’s boathouse is situated.

137. Letter from Sherriff to Campbell Nairne, 15 October 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/4,

138. Followed by Badger’s Green on 3 October, Miss Mabel on 10 October, Home at Seven on 17 October and The Long Sunset on 24 October.

139. ‘Why The Living Theatre Must Not Die’, Radio Times, 21 September 1956, SHC 2332/5/3/15.

140. SHC 2332/1/3/5.

141. Letter from Booth to Sherriff, 6 November 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

142. Letter from Sherriff to C.J. Morley Jacob, 2 January 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

143. The exact order was calculated by a specific measure, which averaged the graded responses offered by listeners, from A+ to C-.

144. Letter from Sherriff to C.A. Joyce, 8 November 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

145. See, in 1945, letters to and from Sherriff and the Reverend Colin Cuttell, SHC 2332/1/1/6.

Chapter 13: Curtain

1. Webster, J., Alistair MacLean, Chapmans, 1991, p.63. A report in the Scottish Daily Mail on 5 January 1957, flagging the film up as the likely top film of the year, quotes a figure of £10,000 for the screen rights.

2. Letter to Ayton Whitaker, 6 October 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/1.

3. SHC 2332/1/2/1.

4. In fact, the play would only be published, as part of a Plays of the Year volume, in November, with a separate volume coming later.

5. Letter from Sherriff to Booth, 15 February 1957, SHC 3813/1/78.

6. Letter from Sherriff to Ayton Whitaker, 17 December 1956, SHC 2332/1/2/1

7. Letter from Ayton Whitaker to Sherriff, 25 January 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/1.

8. Letter from Sherriff to Whitaker, 7 February 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/1.

9. Letter from Val Gielgud to Sherriff, 14 March 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/6.

10. Letter from Sherriff to Val Gielgud, 30 March 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/6.

11. Letter from Val Gielgud to Sherriff, 2 April 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/6.

12. Letter from Sherriff to Bob Fenn, 26 January 1957, SHC 2332/1/1/28.

13. See Daily Mail, 12 February 1959.

14. Films and Filming, April 1959.

15. See Webster, J., op. cit., 1991.

16. Ruined City and No Highway.

17. See interview with Olive Pettit, SHC 9314/7.

18. Letter from Sherriff to Booth, 7 March 1957, SHC 2332/1/3/5.

19. Letter from Sherriff to Booth, 1 May 1957, SHC 2332/1/3/5.

20. The theatres were the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, the Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch and the Playhouse Theatre in Salisbury.

21. The Times, 14 May 1957.

22. The Birmingham Post, 17 May 1957.

23. The Lady, 30 May 1957.

24. The Daily Telegraph, 14 May 1957.

25. The Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1957.

26. The Observer, 19 May 1957.

27. Bailey also told him that, although the audiences were very good wherever they went, the Hornchurch audience ‘took the first act rather coldly. This dismayed him until he was told that quite a lot of them were £2,000 a year dockers now living in opulence outside the East End who might not have taken too kindly to the first scene, which talked about the East End nouveau riche rather freely.’ Letter from Sherriff to Lionel Hale, 29 May 1957, SHC 2332/1/3/5.

28. See, for example, his letter to Fritz Gotfurt of 29 May (SHC 2332/1/3/5); his letter to Joyce Briggs at Rank, 15 May 1957 (SHC 2332/1/1/28), and his subsequent letter to Bob Fenn outlining his planned meetings with Janni and Lee at Pinewood, 20 June 1957, SHC 2332/1/1/28.

29. Letter from Sherriff to Michael Barry, 23 May 1957, SHC 2332/1/3/5.

30. Letter from Sherriff to George Kamm, 30 August 1957, SHC 2332/1/5/4.

31. Letter from Donald Wilson to Bob Fenn, 26 July 1957, SHC 2332/1/1/28.

32. Letter from Donald Wilson to Bob Fenn, 16 August 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/1.

33. Letter from Bob Fenn to Sherriff, 19 August 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/1.

34. Letters to and from Barry and Sherriff, August 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/1.

35. Letter to Bob Fenn, 19 September 1957, SHC 2332/1/1/28.

36. Letter from Sherriff to Michael Barry, 10 October 1957, SHC 2332/1/5/4.

37. Letter from Sherriff to Bryan Bailey, 5 June 1957, SHC 2332/1/3/5.

38. Letter from Sherriff to Michael Barry, 26 September 1957, SHC 3813/1/78.

39. Letter from Michael Barry to Sherriff, 2 October 1957, SHC 2332/1/5/4.

40. Letter from Sherriff to Lawrence Hammond, 17 October 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/6.

41. Liverpool Evening Express, 6 November 1957.

42. Aberdeen Evening Express, 6 November 1957.

43. Birmingham Mail, 6 November 1957.

44. The Sunday Times, 10 November 1957.

45. Letter from Sherriff to Booth, 4 December 1957, SHC 3813/1/78.

46. Letter from Sherriff to Gladys Day, 12 December 1957, SHC 2332/1/1/28.

47. Eventually published on 7 November 1958.

48. SHC 2332/1/2/6.

49. Letter from Sherriff to Val Gielgud, 17 October 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/6.

50. Letter from Val Gielgud to Sherriff, 25 October 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/6.

51. Letter to Val Gielgud, 12 December 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/6.

52. Letter from Sherriff to J.P. Eddy QC, 21 November 1957, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

53. Letter from Sherriff to Margaret McLaren, 13 February 1958, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

54. Letter from Sherriff to Connie Driskell, 13 February 1958, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

55. Letter from Sherriff to Bob Fenn, 20 February 1958, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

56. Letter from Bob Fenn to Sherriff, 17 February 1958, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

57. Letter from Sherriff to R.G. Walford, 10 April 1958, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

58. Letter from Sherriff to Teddy Baird, 17 January 1958, SHC 2332/1/4/3.

59. Letter to Bob Fenn, 1 May 1958, SHC 2332/1/4/3.

60. SHC 2332/3/6/42.

61. Newspaper clipping in SHC 2332/5/2/30.

62. Letter from Henley to Sherriff, 14 January 1958 [misdated as 1957], SHC 2332/1/4/2.

63. Letter from Sherriff to Henley, 16 January 1958, SHC 2332/1/4/2.

64. SHC 2332/3/6/41.

65. Sherriff, R.C., The Siege of Swayne Castle, Gollancz, 1973.

66. Aberdeen Evening Press, 9 April 1959.

67. Letter from David Henley to Sherriff, 3 September 1959, SHC 2332/1/2/4. Henley also reported that Sydney Box had suffered a stroke as soon as they arrived back.

68. Letter from David Henley to Sherriff, 15 March 1960, SHC 2332/1/2/4.

69. Letter from Sherriff to Bernard Miles, 1 January 1959 [misdated as 1958], SHC 2332/1/1/29.

70. SHC 2332/3/7/2.

71. Letter from Sherriff to John Barber, 1 January 1959 [misdated as 1958], SHC 2332/1/3/6.

72. Letter from Sherriff to John Barber, 15 January 1959, SHC 2332/1/3/6.

73. Letter from Sherriff to John Barber, 1 January 1959 [misdated as 1958], SHC 2332/1/3/6.

74. Letter from Sherriff to Archie Batty, 12 February 1959, SHC 2332/1/3/6.

75. Letter from De Laurentiis to Sherriff, 26 December 1958, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

76. Letter from Sherriff to De Laurentiis, 6 January 1959, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

77. Letter from De Laurentiis to Sherriff, 17 March 1959, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

78. Letter from De Laurentiis to Sherriff, 24 March 1959, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

79. SHC 2332/3/6/40/1 & 2.

80. Letter from De Laurentiis to Sherriff, 25 September 1959, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

81. Letter from Sherriff to De Laurentiis, 8 October 1959, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

82. Letter from De Laurentiis to Sherriff, 22 October 1959, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

83. Letter from Sherriff to Bob Fenn, 22 October 1959, SHC 2332/1/4/8.

84. De Laurentiis would try again with the film, commissioning Dalton Trumbo to produce another screenplay in 1963. That version was never made either.

85. Letter from Archie Batty to Sherriff, 31 March 1959, SHC 2332/1/3/6.

86. One of the ideas that came to him, via Spencer Curtis Brown, was that of a series about an insurance investigator. He went to the bother of preparing a twelve-page outline only to find that the idea had been used in America, and that the BBC were already considering their own version, SHC 2332/1/2/9.

87. Letter to Donald Bull, 27 April 1959, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

88. Letter from Sherriff to Gareth Wigan, 11 May 1959, SHC 2332/1/2/7.

89. Liverpool Daily Post, 9 September 1959.

90. The Listener, 17 September 1959.

91. The Yorkshire Post, 9 September 1959.

92. The Sheffield Star, 9 September 1959.

93. Daily Sketch, 9 September 1959.

94. The Star, 9 September 1959.

95. The Daily Telegraph, 21 March 1960.

96. The Sunday Times, 24 April 1960.

97. The Daily Telegraph, 26 April 1960.

98. See letter from Sherriff to Gladys Day, 12 December 1957, SHC 2332/1/1/28.

99. The Lady, 12 May 1960.

100. The Observer, 1 May 1960.

101. The Star, 28 April 1960.

102. News Chronicle, 28 April 1960.

103. The Manchester Guardian, 29 April 1960.

104. The Daily Telegraph, 29 April 1960.

105. Drama, Summer 1960.

106. The Sunday Times, 1 May 1960.

107. Daily Mail, 28 April 1960.

108. Daily Express, 1 June 1960.

109. Letter from Sherriff to Michael Bakewell, 15 February 1961.

110. Letter from Sherriff to Peter Haddon, 28 February 1961, SHC 2332/1/3/8.

111. SHC 2332/1/3/8.

112. Letter from Sherriff to Peter Haddon, 3 July 1961, SHC 2332/1/3/8.

113. Letter from Bernard Miles to Sherriff, 11 July 1961, SHC 2332/1/3/10.

114. Letter from Bernard Miles to Sherriff, 22 August 1961, SHC 2332/1/3/10.

115. Letter from Sherriff to Miles, 25 August 1961. Of course, following the Sequel he did know what happened to them. But perhaps he had forgotten.

116. Daily Express, 10 November 1961.

117. The Sunday Telegraph, 28 January 1962.

118. The Sunday Times, 28 January 1962.

119. Birmingham Mail, 7 February 1962.

120. The Northern Echo. 2 February 1962.

121. John O’London’s Weekly, 22 February 1962.

122. Letter from Bernard Miles to Sherriff, 25 May 1971, SHC 2332/1/3/10.

123. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.212.

124. See the interview with Olive Pettit, SHC 9314/7.

125. Journey’s End and All That, BBC interview with John Ellison, 22 August 1968.

126. Published by Gollancz, 1973.

127. The Sunday Times, 8 April 1973.

128. The Sunday Times, 30 September 1973.

129. The Tablet, 15 December 1973.

130. The Times Educational Supplement, 2 November 1973.

131. Times Literary Supplement, 23 November 1973.

132. SHC 9314/2/5.

133. Journey’s End and All That, BBC interview with John Ellison, 22 August 1968.

Conclusion

1. No Leading Lady, op. cit., p.217.

2. Royal Magazine, probably March 1929. To be found in Sherriff ’s scrapbook. SHC 2332/9/11, p.58.

3. ‘I Believe in Simplicity’, Pictorial Weekly, 29 November 1930.