Cinema
Carry On, Sergeant!
Bruce Bairnsfather · 1928
Synopsis
Four workers from Hamilton enlist together for the war of 1914. Among them, Bob MacKay, an employee of a locomotive factory, leaves his wife, Ruth, back home. We follow them through training, then in the trenches, up to the gas attack of the second battle of Ypres, in April 1915. Behind the lines, in a tavern, MacKay yields to Marthe, a French waitress, and remorse seizes him at once.
Context
Filming took place at the Trenton studios, in Ontario, rented from the province, for some five hundred thousand dollars, promotion included. Bairnsfather refused to show his shooting script to his crew; a hundred and sixty thousand feet of film were shot for a final cut of nine thousand seven hundred. The company had the sheriff seize the shooting script and the negatives of the set photographs. The premiere took place at the Regent in Toronto on 10 November 1928; demonstrators denounced the tavern scene as an insult to Canadian soldiers.
Who it is for
A silent film running from an hour and a half to two hours depending on the copies, with large trench sets and hundreds of extras.
Prizes and reception
The most expensive production of Canadian silent cinema; withdrawn from cinemas after two weeks, it ruined its company, which gave up making any further film.
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