Sports Day (film)
| Sports Day (alternative title, The Colonel's Cup) | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Francis Searle |
| Produced by | Mary Field and Bruce Woolf for GBI - Gaumont British Instruction, School programmes and educational films |
| Written by | Francis Searle |
| Starring |
Peter Jeffrey Roy Russell Jean Simmons |
Release dates |
|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Sports Day is a 1945 short film directed by Francis Searle for Gaumont British Instruction.[1] It featured an early appearance of Jean Simmons.
Plot
A schoolboy almost misses the school sports day when he is wrongly punished for cruelty to a dog.
Cast
- Peggy - Jean Simmons
- Tom - Peter Jeffrey
- Col.House - Roy Russell
- Headmaster - Ernest Borrow
- Bill - David Anthony
Notes
Francis Searle, the director, worked with Gaumont British Screen Services and Gaumont-British Instruction for seven years. Interviewed in 1995 he explained the situation when the Second World War broke out. "We were put on the reserved list and seconded to the Army , Navy and Air Force for training films , in conjunction with the MoI - we made films like Citizens Advice Bureau, and Sam Pepys joins the Navy, Hospital Nurse. " In the interview he describes how he came to work with Jean Simmons.
“I also worked at Merton Park with Jean Simmons, who I cast in a short picture. Mary Field and Bruce Woolf were the bosses at GBI. (Gaumont British Instruction). Mary Field did children's films and she had a film she offered to me (Sports Day, 1945). Aida Foster, who was a big agent for juveniles, set up an audition and Jean, aged about fourteen, came on as bright as a button; she had learned the part and that was it. I didn’t bother looking at any of the others.' [2]