21 Days

21 Days
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Basil Dean
Written by	Graham Greene Basil Dean
Based on	The First and the Last (short story & play) by John Galsworthy (1920)
Produced by	Alexander Korda
Starring	Vivien Leigh Laurence Olivier Leslie Banks
Cinematography	Jan Stallich
Edited by	Charles Crichton William Hornbeck
Music by	Muir Mathieson John Greenwood
Production companies	London Film Productions, Ltd.
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	7 January 1940 (1940-01-07)
Running time	72 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

21 Days (also known as 21 Days Together, The First and the Last and Three Weeks Together) is a 1940 British drama film based on the short 1919 play The First and the Last by John Galsworthy. It was directed by Basil Dean and stars Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier and Leslie Banks. The film was renamed 21 Days Together for the American market.^[1]

Plot[]

Larry Durrant is a disappointment to his family. Henry Wallen, the long-missing and disreputable foreign husband of Larry's lover Wanda shows up on her doorstep. He tries to extort money from the lovers and, in the ensuing fight, Larry accidentally kills him.

Larry stows Henry's corpse in an abandoned archway at Glove Lane. He then visits his brother Keith, a successful barrister hoping to soon become a judge, for advice. Keith tells Larry to leave the country for a while to avoid capture and the damage that it would cause to Keith's career.

However, Larry refuses to leave, and returns to the alley where he had left the body. There he encounters John Evan, a former minister turned tramp, who picks up bloody gloves that Larry has dropped in the street. When Evan is found with the gloves, he is arrested for Wallen's murder, and the police claim to have sufficient evidence for a conviction.

When Larry learns of Evan's arrest, he considers himself a temporarily free man and decides to marry Wanda. Larry and Wanda try to live 30 years of idyllic life in the course of just 21 days because Larry plans to turn himself in to the police before Evan's trial begins. On the day when Evan is sentenced to hang, Keith begs his brother to remain silent and let the condemned man die. Larry, set on doing the right thing, refuses and leaves for the police station, only to be stopped on the steps by Wanda. She has read the newspaper, telling of Evan's demise from a heart attack on his way to jail.

Cast[]

Production[]

Producer Alexander Korda intended 21 Days to be a star vehicle for Vivien Leigh, but his constant interference caused great problems on the set. He rearranged shooting schedules and even added a sequence, and director Basil Dean reputedly never saw a rough cut or the finished product. The title change to 21 Days was attributed to Korda.^[2] Principal photography took place in 1937 at Denham Film Studios. Korda's younger brother Vincent Korda was the film's art director on and was responsible for the set design.^[3]

Following Vivien Leigh's star turn with her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939), Korda shelved 21 Days for two years before releasing it to Columbia Pictures.^[4]

Reception[]

In a review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "True, it is no deathless drama—is little more than a cultivated penny-thriller, in fact—and Miss Leigh, as the party of the second part, is required to devote her charm and talents to nothing more constructive than making the apparently inevitable parting from poor Mr. Olivier seem exceedingly painful, indeed. But it is a highly charged 'meller,' rigid throughout with suspense and nicely laced with much tender emotion."^[5]

References[]

Notes

Bibliography

External links[]

• 21 Days at the TCM Movie Database
• 21 Days at IMDb