''Two Fathers'' is a 1944 British wartime propaganda

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

made by the

Crown Film Unit The Crown Film Unit was an organisation within the British Government's Ministry of Information during the Second World War. Formerly the GPO Film Unit it became the Crown Film Unit in 1940. Its remit was to make films for the general public in ...

, a division of the Ministry of Information, and directed by

Anthony Asquith Anthony William Landon Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among oth ...

Plot

An Englishman (

Bernard Miles Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 190714 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th ce ...

) and a Frenchman (

Paul Bonifas Paul Bonifas (3 June 1902 – 9 November 1975) was a French actor, born in Paris. Career In the 1920s, while working for the French customs service, Bonifas took classes in acting at the Conservatoire de Paris in his spare time. He left wit ...

) find themselves sharing a room in a hotel in an unidentified English location, and fall into conversation. The Englishman's son is in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

, and when the Frenchman shows him a photograph of his daughter, the Englishman remarks that it is less worrisome to have a daughter than a son at this time of war. The Frenchman replies that his daughter, a nurse by profession, is currently an active member of the Maquis. The Englishman says that he has received news that his son was forced to bail out of his plane over France the previous day, and the Frenchman observes that there are many thousands of French men and women who will risk their own safety to help a downed British airman.

References

External links

* * 1944 films Films directed by Anthony Asquith British World War II propaganda shorts British black-and-white films Crown Film Unit films British war films 1940s war films 1940s English-language films {{WWII-documentary-film-stub