Keep the Home Fires Burning

1916
Silent
16m

Two sisters love the same man - one marries him, but the effects of WWI complicate their relationship

The survival of relationships as conscription took men from their wives and children was a preoccupation for filmmakers during WWI. This modest drama was one of several produced by husband and wife team Ernest and Ethyle Batley – she directed, he was the producer and actor and their daughter Dorothy was often their juvenile lead (she plays the unmarried sister here). The plot of this one-reel film could easily have been expanded into a feature-length production, and shows ambition in its use of location footage.

As Britain's only female director of the silent era, it's a real shame that we don't have more of Batley's films. Only three survive, but who knows how she may have developed as a filmmaker in the easier post-war era, with longer films and higher production values. Unfortunately, her life was cut short and she died in 1917, mourned as a woman who "won the affection and respect of all who knew her by her kindness and her outstanding capabilities as an artist, and also as a businesswoman."

The First World War

From the home front to the front line: life during the 'war to end all wars' as seen through the lens of newsreel, propaganda and drama.

Films made and shown in Britain between 1914 and 1918 reflect the scale and horror of the unfolding conflict across multiple theatres of war, but also capture a nation trying to get on with everyday life. Filmmakers shot everything from local events and celebrations to short comedies that provided a much-needed dose of light relief in difficult times. Insights into the changing role of women in wartime and Britain's reliance on colonial troops can also be found.

After WWI, Armistice Day and Remembrance ceremonies were often caught on film, while British cinema produced epic dramas addressing the experiences of the Great War into the 1920s and beyond.