United States advertisement for the film “So Ends Our Night” (1941)
Extent and Medium
Overall: Height: 9.000 inches (22.86 cm) | Width: 11.875 inches (30.163 cm)
Creator(s)
- United Artists Corporation (Distributor)
- Ken Sutak (Compiler)
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 advertisement 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
Double-sided advertisement for the American feature film, “So Ends Our Night,” released in the United States in February 1941, and re-released in 1948. Lobby cards are promotional materials placed in theater lobby windows to highlight specific movie scenes, rather than the broader themes often depicted on posters. “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
Bifold promotional material, printed on rectangular, off-white paper with a single-page advertisement on the front, and a double-page advertisement spanning the center leaves when opened. The front page, printed in black and white, features three columns of images and text. The outside columns each have three headshots of the principal actors, with accompanying captions. The center column has bold advertising copy at the top and bottom, along with three blocks of text in the center. The back page has a red hand stamp in the center, and printing information in the lower right corner. On the center, two-page advertisement, the middle image consists of illustrations of the four principal actors in a line, depicted from the neck up. Directly above is an illustration of a couple standing in front of a rayed sun on the horizon, with the film title arcing above them in yellow, capitalized text. On either side of the central image are smaller-scale, sketched groups of scenes from the film, printed in dark blue. Across the top of the page is a narrow red ribbon with advertising copy printed in black. Along the right edge of the page are four black-and-white photographic images from the film, arranged vertically. The film credits appear in black at the bottom, over a thick, red band. Inset in the lower right corner, overlaying the red band and bottom photo, is a small, light blue, canted box containing advertising copy. The back is lightly discolored, and the bottom third of the center fold has been unevenly cut. Depicted: Fredric March as Joseph Steiner, Margaret Sullavan as Ruth Holland, Frances Dee as Marie Steiner, Glenn Ford as Ludwig Kern, Erich Von Stroheim as Brenner, Anna Sten as Lilo, others unidentified
back, center, stamped, red ink : Luseland Theatre / NEWS, COMICS, ETC. / THUR&SAT / APRIL 22-4 center advertisement, upper left, handwritten, pencil: 4 00
People
- Sten, Anna, 1908-1993.
- Ford, Glenn, 1916-2006.
- Von Stroheim, Erich, 1885-1957.
- Sullavan, Margaret, 1909-1960.
- Remarque, Erich Maria, 1898-1970.
- March, Fredric, 1897-1975.
- Dee, Frances, 1907-2004.
Corporate Bodies
- Favorite Films Corporation
Subjects
- Emigration and immigration in motion pictures.
- Refugees in motion pictures.
- United States.
- Germans in motion pictures.
- Film adaptations.
- Antisemitism in motion pictures.
- Independent films.
- Immigrants in motion pictures.
Genre
- Books and Published Materials
- Object
- Promotional materials.