Damn the War
About Damn the War
Adolphe, a student pilot, trains in a neighboring country and stays with his friend Sigismond. He falls in love with Sigismond's sister Liza. War starts. Both men fly for their own countries. Sigismond forces Adolphe down. They kill each other without knowing who the other is. Lieutenant Maxime, who saw Sigismond die, later asks for Liza's hand. On a walk she recognizes Adolphe's four-leaf-clover medal on Maxime's coat. He says he took it from the enemy pilot who killed her brother. She runs, thinks of suicide, and enters a convent. She does not forget Adolphe.
Cast & crew
More about Damn the War
Alfred Machin wrote and directed this Belgian film. It was released in 1914, just before the First World War. Wikidata gives 50 minutes. The French title is Maudite soit la guerre. Baert plays Adolphe Hardeff. Suzanne Berni, Fernand Crommelynck, Nadia D'Angely, Henri Goidsen, and Albert Hendrickx are billed. The two countries are not named. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Themes
Background
Released in 1914, immediately before the First World War, with two unnamed countries already at war in the story.
Making
Machin staged the training field and the air fight for a Belgian picture finished as the war was starting.
Preservation
A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The medal is a four-leaf clover.
- The pilots do not recognize each other in the air.
- Maxime is the witness who later courts Liza.
- The film shows the two friends fighting as military pilots before the 1914 war began.
Scenes
- Sigismond forces Adolphe's plane down and both die.
- Liza sees Adolphe's clover medal on Maxime.
