The Promise (1969 film)

The Promise
Directed byMichael Hayes
Written byMichael Hayes
Based ona play by Aleksei Arbuzov
Produced byAnthony B. Unger
Henry T. Weinstein
StarringJohn Castle
Ian McKellen
Edited byJohn Trumper
Music byIwan Williams
Production
companies
Howard & Wyndham Films and Television
Release date
  • December 1969 (1969-12)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budgetless than £200,000[1]

The Promise is a 1969 British drama film based on a play by Russian playwright Aleksei Arbuzov. Set in the Soviet Union during the Second World War, it is the story of a love triangle involving three young people caught up in the Siege of Leningrad. The film follows the main protagonists in the post-war years in an attempt to show the lasting effects of that relationship. It featured Ian McKellen's film debut.

The film was on the British Film Institute's BFI 75 Most Wanted list of lost films until a mislabelled copy was found in the British Film Institute's archive after an audit.[2][3][1]

  1. ^ a b "The Promise / BFI Most Wanted". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
  2. ^ "BFI Most Wanted". BFI.
  3. ^ "BFI Most Wanted". British Film Institute. Retrieved 28 November 2017.