Although Herbert Wilcox’s Dawn (1928) is rarely revived, it was one of the most controversial feature films of the 1920s. Dawn tells the story of British nurse Edith Cavell, shot at dawn by the Germans on 12 October 1915 in Brussels for setting up a rescue network for Allied soldiers. During the First World War, Cavell became a world-wide propaganda icon and her death was used as a compelling story illustrating German war atrocities in Belgium. In particular, the circumstances of Cavell’s execution played a crucial part in British propaganda around the brave martyr. Contributing to this narrative was the myth that a certain private Rammler, supposedly part of the German firing squad, refused to shoot and was executed as well, followed by Cavell’s fainting and subsequent fatal blow from the commanding officer’s revolver.
Wilcox’s Dawn was not the first feature film based on Cavell (these include Nurse and Martyr, GB 1915, and The Woman the Germans Shot, US 1918), but it was certainly the most hotly debated one. This was partly due to Wilcox’s intention to make a realistic and historically accurate film. Although most of the shooting was done at London’s Cricklewood Studios, Wilcox included original archive material and location footage from the Belgian capital. The realistic touch was also visible in Clifford Pember’s set designs (based on existing photographs and visits to locations in Brussels), in the chronological narrative, and even the choice of actors: one of Cavell’s collaborators, Ada Bodart, played herself, while the role of Cavell was given to prominent actress Sybil Thorndike, who bore a physical resemblance to the nurse. In addition, Wilcox tried to draw a more balanced picture of the Germans, who mostly play secondary roles as bureaucratic executors of a heartless war machine. However, Dawn’s portrayal of Germans remains ambivalent, best illustrated by the execution scene, shown in Pordenone in two versions.
The Dawn controversy started in September 1927, when British newspapers reported on Wilcox’s intention to make a new movie based on Cavell. The report was repeated abroad, resulting in intense international diplomatic activities which lasted for several months. Besides the fear that Dawn could revive anti-German sentiments, both the German and British governments saw the film as a threat to the normalization of international relations following the October 1925 Locarno Treaties. The announcement of a new British Cavell movie threatened Britain’s role as a broker between the Continental powers, and Germany asked that the film’s production be stopped, although the British Foreign Office claimed the government had no censorship powers. Germany made similar requests in Belgium, where Wilcox started shooting in October 1927. Although it’s not clear to what extent the director was affected by pressure from the authorities, it is known that Pauline Frederick, in Brussels to play Cavell, suddenly withdrew from the project, according to Wilcox due to pressures from the German embassy.
Dawn became a major diplomatic problem, though the results varied within each country. In the British case, Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain publicly denounced the movie and pressured the president of the British Board of Film Censors. When the BBFC effectively banned the film in February 1928 on grounds of public expediency, press comments suggested this was a result of German pressure. Early in April 1928, after a long all-night sitting, the London City Council gave permission for Dawn to be shown for adults, though only once cuts were made, particularly in the execution scene.
In Belgium, the Dawn affair was headline news for several weeks, especially after the government refused to agree to German demands, with the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paul Hymans arguing that his government could not intervene. But unlike in Britain, the Belgian censors accepted the movie for public screening, even for children and without cuts. This uncensored version, which had its world premiere in Brussels’ biggest cinema, the Agora, on 9 March 1928, depicted Rammler’s disobedience and execution by the commanding officer (off-screen), followed by Cavell lying on the ground, ending with a shot of Cavell’s grave.
At one point the Cinémathèque royale had two nitrate prints of the Belgian release version, one of which was discovered in a treasure trove of more than one hundred silent films acquired in 1984 from a fairground manager.  The archive then embarked on a restoration plan that involved evaluating the precarious condition of both prints, both affected by partial nitrate decomposition. A preservation and a projection print were made using the best material from each source. Then in 2012, when the European Film Gateway’s EFG1914 project offered archives the chance to compare their First World War film lists, it was discovered that the EYE Filmmuseum and the Deutsche Kinemathek also had material on this title. By coincidence, the Dutch version was missing the last reel, whereas the German footage consisted solely of the last reel, with Dutch intertitles. This new material was examined in Brussels, where the Berlin material enabled the Cinémathèque royale to complete the execution scene truncated in the Brussels fairground print. Thanks to the EFG1914 digitization project, the internegative of the new restoration was scanned and the film made available on DCP.

Daniël Biltereyst, Bruno Mestdagh

The Belgian print will be screening with the very final scene of the British “version”, which is held at the BFI National Archive in its form as passed by the British Board of Film Censors. This tones down the disobedience of Private Rammler – we don’t see him shot, even off-screen, and titles cover the final action giving Cavell’s words, “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no bitterness towards anyone.” Such anti-war sentiment fell in line with post-Locarno British government policy.

Bryony Dixon