U.S. One-Sheet Poster for the re-release of “So Ends Our Night” (1941)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 41.000 inches (104.14 cm) | Width: 27.000 inches (68.58 cm)
Creator(s)
- United Artists Corporation (Distributor)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
- Favorite Films Corporation (Distributor)
Biographical History
The Cinema Judaica Collection consists of more than 1,200 objects relating to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical subjects, from 1923 to 2000, from the United States, Europe, Israel, Canada, Mexico, and Argentina. The collection was amassed by film memorabilia collector Ken Sutak, to document Holocaust-and Jewish-themed movies of the World War II era and the postwar years. The collection includes posters, lobby and photo cards, scene stills, pressbooks, trade ads, programs, magazines, books, VHS tapes, DVDS, and 78 rpm records. Sutak organized these materials into two groups, “Cinema Judaica: The War Years, 1939–1949” and “Cinema Judaica: The Epic Cycle, 1950–1972” and, in conjunction with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum (now the Dr. Bernard Heller Museum in New York), organized exhibitions on these two themes in 2007 and 2008. Sutak subsequently authored companion books with the same titles.
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2018 by Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Ken Sutak and Sherri Venokur
Scope and Content
One-sheet, re-release poster for the American feature film, “So Ends Our Night,” released in the United States in February 1941, and re-released in 1948. “So Ends Our Night” was an independently produced adaptation of the 1939 novel, “Flotsam,” by Erich Maria Remarque. Remarque was a German veteran of World War I, who became famous for writing “All Quiet on the Western Front” about war and the experiences of German soldiers. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Remarque’s works were deemed “unpatriotic” and banned. He fled for Switzerland, had his German citizenship revoked in 1938, and immigrated to the United States just before the start of World War II. “So Ends Our Night” begins in 1937 and focuses on three German refugees, whose paths cross on multiple occasions as they move throughout Western Europe to flee Nazi persecution. It highlights the predicament of (largely Jewish) refugees who are unable to obtain the legal documentation needed to enter or settle in free countries. It was one of the first Hollywood film to focus on the experiences of refugees. Despite a revised marketing campaign, the film was widely viewed as too solemn, slow, and lacking in drama. This object is one of more than 1,200 objects in the Cinema Judaica Collection of materials related to films about World War II and the Holocaust as well as Jewish, Israeli, and biblical themes.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
Restrictions on use. Copyright status is unknown.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
One-sheet offset lithographic poster printed on rectangular, off-white paper for the film, “So Ends Our Night.” The poster has a narrow, white margin on all four sides, and three sets of photographic and illustrated images. In the top left corner, a tagline is printed in capitalized and italicized white text over a blue background. The top half of the poster has a large image of two men in gray shirts, depicted from the shoulder up, and loosely outlined in yellow and white. The man on the right is in left profile and pointing a lit flashlight in the face of the man on the left, who is trying to turn away from and block the light with his hands. Directly below the image, in the center of the poster, is the film title in large, red letters on a yellow banner. Below are several lines of film credits in yellow over a black background. The two sets of images in the bottom half of the poster overlay an abstract, purple and gray, mottled background. On the left is a photographic image of a woman with short hair, embracing a dark-haired man, both depicted from the shoulders up. Directly below them is a yellow and black illustration of three men, one of whom is has been punched by another and is falling backward. The photographic image on the right features a man seated at a table, clutching the waist of a woman in a tan blouse, who is standing. At the center of the bottom edge is a black and white corporate logo. In the bottom right margin is printing information in blue text and a handwritten pencil inscription. There are several ink and colored pencil inscriptions on the back. The poster is torn along heavy crease lines, and several torn patches have been repaired with clear tape on the front and back. Small pieces of colored paper have been pace beneath the tape on the back for additional support. Depicted : Glenn Ford and Fredric March as Ludwig Kern and Joseph Steiner, Glenn Ford and Margaret Sullavan as Ludwig Kern and Ruth Holland
front, bottom right margin, handwritten, pencil : R 1940’s / rerelease! back, center, handwritten, black ink and pencil : 1989 / SO ENDS OUR NIGHT / 1989 back, center, stemped, red ink : FROM / PENNINGTON POSTER SERV. / 130 West 18th St. / KANSAS CITY 8 MISSOURI / FROM / PENNINGTON POSTER SERV. / 130 West 18th St. / KANSAS CITY 8 MISSOURI back, center right, handwritten, colored pencil and ink : SO ENDS OUR NIGHT / SO ENDS OUR NIGHT / 1941 UNITED ARTISTS back, center left edge, handwritten, pencil and colored pencil : SO ENDS OUR NIGHT [R] 4- back, bottom left corner, printed, blue ink : 13
People
- Sullavan, Margaret, 1909-1960.
- Sten, Anna, 1908-1993.
- Dee, Frances, 1907-2004.
- March, Fredric, 1897-1975.
- Remarque, Erich Maria, 1898-1970.
- Von Stroheim, Erich, 1885-1957.
- Ford, Glenn, 1916-2006.
Corporate Bodies
- Favorite Films Corporation
Subjects
- Film adaptations.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Independent films.
- United States.
- Immigrants in motion pictures.
- Refugees in motion pictures.
- Antisemitism in motion pictures.
- Emigration and immigration in motion pictures.
Genre
- Posters
- Object
- Posters.