Eve of Saint Mark

The Eve of St. Mark
Original Broadway cast poster
Directed by	Lem Ward

The Eve of St Mark is a 1942 play by Maxwell Anderson set during World War II. It later became a 1944 film by 20th Century Fox that featured some of the same actors who repeated their roles in the film. The title is derived from the legend of St Mark's Eve and the title of an uncompleted 1819 poem by John Keats.

Quizz West is conscripted into the United States Army in late 1940. Prior to being shipped out first to San Francisco, then the Philippines, Quizz and his hometown girlfriend Janet discuss their future plans.

When America enters the war Quizz and his friends are manning a coastal artillery gun against overwhelming odds. Quizz communicates with his mother and Janet through dreams, where he asks them whether he and his friends should stay with their gun to sacrifice themselves by covering the withdrawing American troops or leave by boat for a chance of survival.

Anderson dedicated the play to his nephew Sgt. Lee Chambers who was killed in an accident in the military. When researching the contemporary US Army for the play at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Anderson was assigned a soldier from the Army’s public relations named Marion Hargrove. The two became friends with Anderson basing one of the characters in the play, Pvt. Francis Marion on him and recommending Hargrove’s stories of army life to his publisher. When published as See Here, Private Hargrove, Anderson wrote a forward to the book.

The play opened on October 7, 1942, and closed June 26, 1943, after 307 performances.

A London stage version was directed by Gabriel Pascal with many of the roles played by American servicemen posted in England. One of the soldiers in the play was John Sweet playing Pvt. Marion who Michael Powell chose for the lead in his A Canterbury Tale.