Dawn | |
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Movie poster
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Directed by | Herbert Wilcox |
Produced by | Herbert Wilcox |
Written by |
Reginald Berkeley (play) Robert Cullen Herbert Wilcox |
Starring |
Sybil Thorndike Ada Bodart Gordon Craig Marie Ault |
Cinematography | Bernard Knowles |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Woolf & Freedman Film Service |
Release date
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1 March 1928 |
Running time
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90 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Dawn is a 1928 British silent war film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Sybil Thorndike, Gordon Craig and Marie Ault. It was produced by Wilcox for his British & Dominions Film Corporation. The film was made at Cricklewood Studios with sets designed by Clifford Pember.
Based on a play by Reginald Berkeley, this film tells the story of World War I martyr Edith Cavell. Sybil Thorndike stars as Cavell, a nurse who risked her own life by rescuing British Prisoners of War from the Germans. When Cavell was captured and sentenced to be executed, it sparked international outrage, even from neutral nations.
One of the most controversial British films of the 1920s, Dawn was censored because of what objectors considered its brutal depiction of warfare and anti-German sentiments. Pressure was exerted by both the German Ambassador and the British Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain to prevent the film being passed for exhibition.
Wilcox returned to the subject in 1939 with Nurse Edith Cavell starring Anna Neagle.