The Wind Cannot Read

The Wind Cannot Read

Original British quad poster
Directed by Ralph Thomas
Produced by Betty E. Box
Earl St. John
Written by Richard Mason (novel)
Starring Dirk Bogarde
Yoko Tani
Ronald Lewis
John Fraser
Music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Cinematography Ernest Steward
Edited by Frederick Wilson
Release date
 1958
Running time
 115 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

The Wind Cannot Read is a 1958 British drama film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Dirk Bogarde, Yoko Tani, Ronald Lewis and John Fraser.[1] It was based on a novel by Richard Mason.

Songwriter, Peter Hart received the 1958 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for the title song, performed by Vera Lynn.[2]

Cast

Plot

The film takes place in Burma and India during World War II.

A British officer falls in love with his Japanese instructor at a military language school. They start a romance, but she is regarded as the enemy and is not accepted by his countrymen. They marry in secret and plan on spending his two weeks leave together. When one of the other officers is injured, he is sent into the field as a interrogator. Later he is captured by the Japanese army when he is patrolling with a brigadier and an Indian driver in a Japanese-controlled zone. He escapes and returns to his own lines, only to discover that his wife is suffering from a brain tumor although the doctor initially gives her good odds of surviving; she dies after an operation.

Production

In 1955 David Lean agreed to film Richard Mason's novel The Wind Cannot Read, the story of a romance between a British officer and a self-exiled Japanese woman in India circa 1943, during World World II.[3]

Originally Lean considered making the lead character a Canadian and offered the part to Glenn Ford.[4] Lean also offered the role to Kenneth More, who was unsure about whether the public would accept him in the part and turned it down. It was a decision More later regarded as "the greatest mistake I ever made professionally".[5] Lean had completed a script in collaboration with Mason and cast Kishi Keiko as the girl, but disagreed with Alexander Korda, who was to have produced the film and the project fell through.[6]

Lean had already entered into discussions with Sam Spiegel, regarding a film version of Pierre Boulle's novel The Bridge on the River Kwai. After Korda's death in 1956 the rights to Mason's novel were sold to Rank Film Productions, who assigned the project to the team of Betty Box and Ralph Thomas.[7]

Filming took place on location in India in early 1958, with Dirk Bogarde in the main role.[8][9]

Ralph Thomas later said he thought Sir John Davis of Rank "very bravely" authorised location filming in India "because he trusted David Lean's judgement that it was a splendid book. It was a real three-handkerchief picture, which I thoroughly enjoyed making, and Dirk was very good in it."[10]

References

  1. ↑ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/58209
  2. ↑ Lister, David, Pop ballads bite back in lyrical fashion, The Independent, 28 May 1994
  3. ↑ SCANNING THE CURRENT BRITISH SCREEN SCENE: DIRECTOR DAVID LEAN MOVES EASTWARD -- WAR EPIC --COLUMBIA'S AGENDA By STEPHEN WATTSLONDON.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 19 June 1955: X7.
  4. ↑ Monroe Specifications Named for 'Karamazov,; Lean Offers Ford Film Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 22 Oct 1956: A11.
  5. ↑ Kenneth More, More or Less, Hodder & Staughton, 1978 p 228
  6. ↑ http://old.bfi.org.uk/lean/material.php?theme=2&type=Correspondence&title=wind_cannot
  7. ↑ ON BRITAIN'S VARIED MOVIE FRONTS: AMERICAN STAR PROBLEM --CHAPLIN'S ROCK 'N' ROLL--CRITICISM POSER UP-TO-DATE "KING" GALLIC CRITIQUE HEADED FOR INDIA OUT OF THE PAST By STEPHEN WATTS. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 3 March 1957: 113
  8. ↑ JAPANESE FILM STARS FOR INDIA: SHOOTING OF PICTURE The Times of India (1861-current) [New Delhi, India] 18 Jan 1958: 11
  9. ↑ British Cinema of the 1950s: The Decline of Deference by Sue Harper, Vincent Porter Oxford University Press, 2003 p 53
  10. ↑ Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema 1997 p 558
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