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	~~{{short description\|1944 war film by Frank Launder}}~~
	~~{{Use dmy dates\|date=June 2016}}~~
	~~{{Use British English\|date=June 2016}}~~
	{{Infobox film		{{Infobox film
	~~\| name = Two Thousand Women~~		\| image = Two Thousand Women.jpg
	\| image = Two Thousand Women ~~VideoCover~~.~~png~~
	\| image_size =		\| image_size =
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	* {{Screenonline title\|id=440851}}		* {{Screenonline title\|id=440851}}
	* [https://archive.org/stream/variety155-1944-09#page/n49/mode/1up Review of film] at ''Variety''		* [https://archive.org/stream/variety155-1944-09#page/n49/mode/1up Review of film] at ''Variety''

	~~{{Launder and Gilliat}}~~
	~~{{Gainsborough Pictures}}~~

	[[Category:1944 films]]		[[Category:1944 films]]
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	[[Category:1940s British films]]		[[Category:1940s British films]]
			[[Category:British war comedy films]]
			[[Category:British comedy films]]

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en>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* External links */move to Category:1940s British films

2022-09-03T17:31:31Z

External links: move to Category:1940s British films

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{{short description|1944 war film by Frank Launder}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Two Thousand Women
| image = Two Thousand Women VideoCover.png
| image_size =
| caption =
| director = [[Frank Launder]]
| producer = [[Edward Black (producer)|Edward Black]] '''executive''' [[Maurice Ostrer]]
| screenplay = Frank Launder '''add dialogue''' [[Michael Pertwee]]
| starring = [[Phyllis Calvert]] [[Flora Robson]] [[Patricia Roc]] [[Renée Houston]]
| music = [[Hans May]]
| cinematography = [[Jack E. Cox]]
| editing = [[R. E. Dearing]]
| studio = [[Gainsborough Studios]]
| distributor = [[Gainsborough Studios]] Ellis Films (US)
| released = 6 November 1944 (UK) October 1951 (US)
| runtime = 97 min. (UK) 81 min. (US)
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
| gross = 547,159 admissions (France, 1945)<ref name="box">[http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com.au&sl=fr&u=http://www.boxofficestory.com/france-1945-c22731925&usg=ALkJrhiPuUc4vZGBcb7OUARBcpu2dF_c5A French box office in 1945] at Box office story</ref>
}}
'''''Two Thousand Women''''' is a 1944 British comedy-drama [[war film]] about a German [[internment camp]] in [[Occupied France]] which holds British women who have been resident in the country. Three [[RAF]] [[aircrew]]men, whose bomber has been shot down, enter the camp and are hidden by the women from the Germans.

The film was released in the United States in 1951 in a severely cut-down version under the title of '''''House of 1,000 Women'''''. Per the [[British Film Institute]] database, this is the second in an "unofficial trilogy" by Launder and Gilliat, along with ''[[Millions Like Us]]'' (1943) and ''[[Waterloo Road (film)|Waterloo Road]]'' (1945).

==Plot==
During the 1940 [[Battle of France]], Rosemary Brown ([[Patricia Roc]]), an English [[Novice#Christianity|novice]] nun, is apprehended by French soldiers who have mistaken her for a [[fifth column]]ist. She is sentenced to face a firing squad, but the Germans arrive and she is sent (without her habit, which is being cleaned) to an internment camp in a grand hotel at the spa town of Marneville. She journeys there in the back of a lorry with [[journalist]] Freda ([[Phyllis Calvert]]), [[stripper]] Bridie ([[Jean Kent]]), and posh Muriel ([[Flora Robson]]) and her travelling companion, Miss Meredith ([[Muriel Aked]]). At the camp, they meet Maud ([[Renée Houston]]), Margaret ([[Anne Crawford]]), Nellie ([[Dulcie Gray]]), Mrs Burtshaw ([[Thora Hird]]) and Teresa King ([[Betty Jardine]]). While two women are allocated to each room, Bridie uses her charms with Sergeant Hentzner ([[Carl Jaffe]]) to obtain a room to herself. Although the hotel is very luxurious, not all the baths have a water supply. The hotel proprietor, Monsieur Boper (Guy Le Feuvre), is believed to be collaborating with the Germans.

The women receive a radio from an unknown source, but it is swiftly confiscated by the Germans. The women conclude that they have a [[stool pigeon]], nicknamed "Poison Ivy", amongst the dozen who knew about the radio. Nellie reports that she saw the German file on Rosemary; the charge of being a fifth columnist causes suspicion to fall on her. However, Freda and Maud do not believe it. They warn Rosemary, who reveals she is a nun.

Freda deliberately violates the blackout during a night-time [[strategic bombing|air raid]] by the [[RAF]]. One plane crashes nearby after its crew bail out. Pilot Officer Jimmy Moore (James McKechnie), Sergeant Alec Harvey ([[Reginald Purdell]]) and Dave Kennedy ([[Robert Arden]]) seek refuge in the hotel. The women hide them, but have to conceal the fact from Teresa King, who is revealed to be a Nazi spy. Later, Alec recognises Rosemary as Mary Maugham, a singer whose boyfriend murdered his wife; she became a nun as a result. Jimmy and Rosemary begin to fall for each other, as do Dave and Bridie. Hentzner finds Dave, who manages to strangle him quietly, and his body is hidden.

The women devise a plan to enable the men to escape during a concert they will put on. To ensure the Germans stay until the end, Freda persuades Bridie to perform her act last. However, when Bridie overhears what Dave thinks of her (due to her fraternisation with the Germans), she slips Teresa a note betraying all. Freda makes Dave write an apology professing his love, which she delivers to Bridie. Bridie then goes to Teresa's room and sees that she has already read the note. The two women fight. Teresa wins and alerts Frau Holweg, but Maud knocks Holweg out. However, Teresa sees the airmen escaping and warns the commandant, but it is too late. The trio escape, with the aid of Monsieur Boper, who is not a collaborator after all. The women defiantly sing "[[There'll Always Be an England]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Babington |first=Bruce |title=Launder and Gilliat (British Film Makers) |year=2013 |publisher=Manchester University Press |page=66 |isbn=978-07-19056-68-0}}</ref>

==Cast==
{{div col}}
* [[Phyllis Calvert]] as Freda Thompson
* [[Flora Robson]] as Miss [Muriel] Manningford
* [[Patricia Roc]] as Rosemary Brown
* [[Renée Houston]] as Maud Wright
* [[Reginald Purdell]] as Alec Harvey
* [[Anne Crawford]] as Margaret Long
* [[Jean Kent]] as Bridie Johnson
* James McKechnie as Jimmy Moore
* [[Robert Arden]] as Dave Kennedy (as Rob Arden)
* [[Carl Jaffe]] as Sergeant Hentzner
* [[Muriel Aked]] as Miss [Claire] Meredith
* Kathleen Boutall as Mrs Hadfield
* Hilda Campbell-Russell as Mrs [Cornelia] Hope Latimer
* Christiana Forbes as Frau Holweg
* [[Thora Hird]] as Mrs. Burtshaw
* [[Dulcie Gray]] as Nellie Skinner
* Joan Ingram as Mrs Tatmarsh
* [[Betty Jardine]] as Teresa King
* Christiane De Maurin as Annette
* Guy Le Feuvre as Monsieur Boper (as Guy Lefeuvre)
* Paul Sheridan as French Officer
{{div col end}}

==Production==
Frank Launder stated later that he "should have treated the subject more seriously...that it would have been a bigger film if I concentrated less on the comedy and more on the drama".<ref>Babington, p. 72.</ref>

Phyllis Calvert said she was offered the part of the nun who falls in love with a pilot, but turned it down and Patricia Roc played it instead. Calvert played Freda Thompson, even though she felt Launder and Gilliat "didn't like me turning down a part they had written for me, which I can understand".<ref name="brian">{{cite book |last=MacFarlane |first=Brian |title=An Autobiography of British Cinema |year=1997 |publisher=Methuen |location=London |page=111 |isbn=978-04-13705-20-4}}</ref> According to Calvert, Renée Houston and Flora Robson "didn't get on at all" while the film was being made.<ref name="brian"/>

==Reception==
According to trade papers, the film was a success at the British box office in 1944.<ref>{{cite book |last=Murphy |first=Robert |title=Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939–48 |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |page=207 |isbn=978-04-15076-84-5}}</ref>

==American release==
Perhaps because of the success of ''[[Three Came Home]]'', the film was released in the USA in 1951 in a severely cut version under the title of ''House of 1,000 Women''. The American version of the film available on DVD ignores Patricia Roc's adventures as well as several subplots and starts the film with the transport to the internment hotel.<ref>Babington, p. 9.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|id=0036573}}
* {{Screenonline title|id=440851}}
* [https://archive.org/stream/variety155-1944-09#page/n49/mode/1up Review of film] at ''Variety''

{{Launder and Gilliat}}
{{Gainsborough Pictures}}

[[Category:1944 films]]
[[Category:1944 war films]]
[[Category:1940s war comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:British World War II films]]
[[Category:British black-and-white films]]
[[Category:British war comedy-drama films]]
[[Category:Films set in France]]
[[Category:Gainsborough Pictures films]]
[[Category:World War II films made in wartime]]
[[Category:World War II prisoner of war films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:1940s British films]]

Two Thousand Women - Revision history

Kurt at 19:05, 5 February 2023

Kurt: 1 revision imported

en>Ser Amantio di Nicolao: /* External links */move to Category:1940s British films