21 Days Together

To view photos from this film, please Visit the vivien leigh photo archive.

Starring: Vivien Leigh (Wanda), Laurence Olivier (Larry Durrant), Hay Petrie (John Evans), Leslie Banks (Keith Durrant), Francis L. Sullivan (Mander), David Horne (Beavis), William Dewhurst (Lord Chief Justice), Frederick Lloyd (Swinton), Robert Newton (Tolly), Esme Percy (Henry Walenn), Eliot Mason (Frau Grunlick), Meinhart Maur (Carl Grunlich), Morris Harvey (Alexander Macpherson), Victor Rietti (Antonio), Wallace Lupino (Father), Muriel George (Mother), Lawrence Hanray (Solicitor), Arthur Young (Asher), Fred Groves (Barnes), Aubrey Mallalieu (Magistrate), John Warwick.

Director: Basil Dean

Screenplay: Basil Dean and Graham Greene from the play The First and the Last

Producer: Alexander Korda

Art Director: Vincent Korda

Sound: AW Watkins

Music: John Greenwood

Photography: Jan Stallick

Opened: in USA, May 16, 1940; London, January 7, 1940

Reissued: 1944 by Key

Running Time: 72 or 75 minutes (black and white)

American Distributor: Columbia Pictures

Synopsis: A drama based on John Galsworthy's play about two lovers who spend three glorious weeks together before the man goes to trial for murder. Cynthia Molt writes: "Larry Durrant's barrister brother, Keith Durrant, who is on the edge of becoming a judge, is fearful of any scandal. When Larry meets Wanda, and her estranged husband finds out about them, he fights off her spouse and kills him in self-defense, as she witnesses the murder. A mentally ill man has been arrested for the crime and will be incarcerated for twenty-one days, before his trial. Larry pursues three weeks of happiness in Wanda's company, and then plans to turn himself in to authorities. His brother prefers the innocent man be hung than to be excoriated in the newspapers. The moral dilemma is solved-- the man in jail dies of a heart attack, leaving Wanda and Larry free to be together."

Fun Fact: This film was not released for 2 years, after Vivien & Larry become famous for their roles in Gone with the Wind and Wuthering Heights. One scene in the film was directed by Korda.

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