BFI

Gaumont's Civil War drama, The Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight was based on the American author Rose Hartwick Thorpe's ballad poem of the same name. In this dramatic scenario a cavalier is condemned to be shot by firing squad and his young fiancée seeks to prevent the order from being executed by stopping the bell ringing at curfew time. She consequently climbs up the vines on the bell tower and grabs hold of the bell clapper to prevent it from sounding the bell. The firing squad, bereft of their signal, do not carry out the execution and the couple are reunited.

A precursor of the Film d'Art which emerged in France in 1908, this is a conscious adaptation of a known work with the specific intention of appealing to a discerning public with a taste for theatrical literary and historical adaptations. Although the premise and the performance might appear somewhat risible nowadays this was a serious effort to raise the tone of film production.

Bryony Dixon

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