''The Awakening'' is a 1954 short
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
of
Douglas Fairbanks Presents
''Douglas Fairbanks Presents'' is a 1953-1956 syndicated half-hour dramatic anthology series. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. was the host, and he sometimes starred in episodes. It was also known as ''Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Presents''. A total of 117 episo ...
anthology series based on
Nikolai Gogol's short story "
The Overcoat
"The Overcoat" (russian: Шине́ль, translit. Shinyél’; sometimes translated as "The Cloak") is a short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story has had a great influence on Russian literature. Eugène-Me ...
".
The Man is a first dramatic role of
Buster Keaton. Fairbanks says, "It struck me as a beautiful idea — a novel idea — to put him in a straight part, because he was such a beautiful actor and a great talent. It worked out very well; he gave a marvelous performance".
The original plot of Gogol's story is significantly changed. There are allusions to
George Orwell's ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and fina ...
'' dystopia in the film.
Cast
*
Buster Keaton — ''The Man''
*
James Hayter — ''The Chief''
*
Carl Jaffe
Carl Jaffe (21 March 1902 – 12 April 1974) was a German actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career began to develop.
In 1933 Jaffe changed his stage name to Fra ...
— ''The Tailor''
*
Lynne Cole — ''The Girl''
*
Geoffrey Keen
Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the ''James Bond'' films.
Biography
Early lif ...
— ''The Supervisor''
*
Christopher Lee — ''The Thief''
*
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. — ''Himself - Host''
References
External links
*
Films based on The Overcoat
1954 films
1954 drama films
1950s English-language films
American drama films
British drama films
British black-and-white films
1950s American films
1950s British films
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