Give Us This Day (1949)

Curiosidades

Give Us This Day is a 1949 British drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk from a screenplay by Ben Barzman, and starring Sam Wanamaker, Lea Padovani and Kathleen Ryan. It is based on the 1939 semi-autobiographical novel Christ in Concrete by Pietro di Donato, about Italian-American bricklayers in Brooklyn enduring the struggles the Great Depression.

Production

The rights to Pietro di Donato's novel were obtained by Rod E. Geiger, a New York-born US Army Colonel in the Signal Corps who had entered film production after meeting Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, co-producing his landmark neorealist works Rome, Open City and Paisan. Di Donato had become acquainted with Geiger and Rossellini after writing the English-language subtitles for Rome, Open City.

When Rossellini declined, Di Donato suggested Edward Dmytryk after being impressed by his film Crossfire. Production was planned to begin in New York on March 10, 1948, with a cast led by Reiner, Sam Wanamaker, Albert Dekker, and Karen Morley.

The production collapsed when it became clear that Dmytryk and screenwriter Ben Barzman would be unable to work in the US after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Shortly thereafter, Dmytryk told Barzman "I think we can get a production of this in England, if we had a screenplay.

Geiger teamed with local British producer N.A. Bronsten. The entire cast was replaced (except for Wanamaker, who was publicly critical of HUAC), with Italian actress Lea Padovani now playing the female lead and the rest of the cast filled out with local British talent.

Filming took place at Denham Film Studios and on-location in London. The set was visited by Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

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