|
One Precious Year
|
 film poster |
 Basil Rathbone and Anne Grey |
Filmed at British and Dominion Elstree Studios, One Precious Year was released in the United Kingdom in February 1933. It doesn't appear that the film was ever released in the USA.
One Precious Year is based on the 1914 play Driven by Temple Thurston. Thurston also prepared the screen dialogue while work progressed on the scenario. Sadly, Thurston became ill with pneumonia shortly after the film premiered. He was 53 when he died on March 19, 1933.
The play Driven opened at the Haymarket Theatre in London on June 17, 1914. The roles of the married couple (John H. Staffurth and Diana Staffurth) were played by C. Aubrey Smith and Alexandra Carlisle. These roles correspond to Stephen and Dierdre Carton (played by Owen Nares and Anne Grey) in the film One Precious Year. The role of the young man who seduced Mrs. Staffurth (called Captain Furness in the play) was played by Owen Nares. This role corresponds to Derek Nagel (Basil Rathbone) in One Precious Year.
Driven was a success in London. In December 1914 the play opened in New York City at the Empire Theater.
A silent film version of the story was produced in the U.K. Directed by
Maurice Elvey, the film Driven was released in January 1916.
Renamed Desperation, the film was released in the USA in March 1917.
See
https://www.imdb.com/title/
ONE PRECIOUS YEAR The attractive programme offered at the Crystal Palace Theatre today is headed by "One Precious Year," a screen adaptation of the late E. Temple Thurston's famous play, "Driven." An outstanding cast of British players portrays this fascinating and thrilling drama. Owen Nares plays the role of Stephen Carton, a Foreign Office official, and Anne Grey is cast as Dierdre, his wife. Others in the cast are Basil Rathbone as Derek Nagel and Flora Robson as Julia Skene. "One Precious Year" concerns the life of Stephen Carton and his wife, who is informed by her medical advisers that she has only one year to live. Her reaction to this "sentence of death," and an original climax, make this one of the year's best screen stories. —The Christchurch Star (New Zealand), September 23, 1933 |
Basil Rathbone had not acted with any of his costars (Anne Grey, Owen Nares, Flora Robson) before they appeared together in One Precious Year. A curious coincidence is that Owen Nares played Dr. Lawson in the film version of The Edge o' Beyond; Rathbone portrayed Dr. Lawson on the stage. See the review here: http://www.basilrathbone.net/theater/edge_o_beyond/index.htm
Rathbone made no mention at all of One Precious Year in his autobiography. This suggests that he wasn't fond of the film or proud of his part in it. It was likely just another film he did for the money.
 A page promoting the film appeared in Picture Show, September 2, 1933 |
 Director Henry Edwards photo by Charles Lallie |
"Strictly routine melodrama with a better than usual cast." — TV Guide
"There is a high standard of acting throughout." —Picturegoer Weekly, February 16, 1933
"Although well-acted, the picture was easily forgettable." —Michael B. Druxman, Basil Rathbone: His Life and His Films, 1975
|
FILMING BRITISH BEAUTY SPOTS It may be rightly said that some of the most beautiful and picturesque scenery can be seen in Devonshire and Cornwall. Cameraman Stanley Rodwell, who has spent the last few days filming the Cornish Riviera for atmosphere scenes for "Driven," a new Paramount British Picture, has returned to Elstree—an enthusiastic admirer of Great Britain's west coast scenery. "It was my first trip to Devon and Cornwall," he remarked on his return, "and I sincerely trust that it will not be my last. Mr. Henry Edwards, the director of 'Driven,' sent me down there to obtain some shots of waves breaking over rocks on the sea shore. the scenes which I photographed, when shown on the screen, were really remarkable both in sound and realism. Together with other camera records of the south-west coast, they will prove of great assistance in presenting the right atmosphere in the completed picture." —The Linlithgowshire Gazette, December 30, 1932 |
One Precious Year is not available on DVD or any other medium. The film appears to be lost.
 Basil Rathbone in 1933. |
 Anne Grey and Owen Nares |
..
|
.
