Pastor Hall

{{Short description|1940 British film by Roy Boulting}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2016}}

{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}

{{Infobox film

| name = Pastor Hall

| image = "Pastor_Hall"_(1940).jpg

| caption = U.S. poster

| director = Roy Boulting

| writer = Leslie Arliss
Anna Reiner
Haworth Bromley
John Boulting
Roy Boulting
Miles Malleson

| based_on = the play Pastor Hall (1939) by Ernst Toller{{Cite journal|title=Exile Drama: The Translation of Ernst Toller's Pastor Hall (1939)|journal=Translation and Literature|volume=24|issue=2|pages=190–202|doi=10.3366/tal.2015.0201|year = 2015|last1 = Alix-Nicolaï|first1 = Florian}}

| producer = John Boulting

| starring = Wilfrid Lawson
Nova Pilbeam
Marius Goring
Seymour Hicks

| cinematography = Mutz Greenbaum

| editing = Roy Boulting

| music = Charles Brill
Hans May (as Mac Adams)

| studio = Charter Film Productions

| distributor = Grand National Pictures (UK)

| released = {{Film date|1940|05|27|London|df=y}}

| runtime = 95 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget = £25,000{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42501896 |title=TWIN PRODUCERS |newspaper=Cairns Post |issue=13,838 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=10 July 1946 |accessdate=13 September 2017 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}

| gross =

}}

Pastor Hall is a 1940 British drama film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Nova Pilbeam, Marius Goring, Seymour Hicks and Bernard Miles.{{cite web|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/film/mcwjm/pastor-hall|title=Pastor Hall|author=David Parkinson|work=RadioTimes}} The film is based on the play of the same title by German author Ernst Toller who had lived as an emigrant in the United States until his suicide in 1939.{{cite web|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6b2b4523|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712004539/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6b2b4523|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-12|title=Pastor Hall (1941)|work=BFI}}

The U.S. version of the film opens with an added prologue denouncing the Nazis narrated by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a performance arranged by her son James Roosevelt who was working in Hollywood as a producer. Samuel Goldwyn planned to distribute the film through United Artists but would not go against Production Code Administration (Hays Code) officials, who declared the film "avowedly British propaganda."{{cite book |last=Beauchamp |first=Angela S. |date=2024 |title=Eleanor Roosevelt on Screen: The First Lady's Appearances in Film and Television 1932-1962 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc, Publishers |page=26 |isbn= 9781476693026}} Committed to the film's importance, James Roosevelt hired screenwriter Robert Sherwood to write the prologue, engineered his mother's involvement, and removed the most violent scenes. PCA officials bowed to the President's son, and the film received approval. United Artists distributed it. Ibid.{{cite book |last1=Koppes |first1=Clayton R. |last2=Black |first2=Gregory D. |date= 1990|title=Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MNa1E9-Zc4C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PA33&dq=%22pastor%20hall%22%20%22%22james%20roosevelt%22&pg=PA33#v=onepage&q=%22pastor%20hall%22%20%22%22james%20roosevelt%22&f=false |publisher=University of California Press |page=33 |isbn= |access-date=24 February 2025}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tvguide.com/movies/pastor-hall/review/108936/|title=Pastor Hall|work=TVGuide.com}}