It’s an iconic scene from an iconic war film. The speech made by Major Dickie Lonsdale in Theirs is the Glory.
It’s a classic but it’s also immediately obvious that Lonsdale wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination the greatest actor in the world. If you watch the clip carefully you can see him looking off-camera occasionally at something. The question is, what?
Easy, its this door, now on display at the Hartenstein Museum.
Dickie kept fluffing his lines, which when you consider that he actually made the speech in Oosterbeek Church during the battle is somewhat remarkable. As a solution the Director, Brian Desmond Hurst, had the lines written on a door lying amidst the wrecked church. It’s this door which you can find at the Hartenstein. A unique artefact to a unique film housed amongst a unique collection.
It’s also worth pointing out that in the film Dickie Lonsdale is mentioned as being a Lieutenant-Colonel. This is an error. He parachuted in as the second in command of the 11th Battalion (Lt. Col George Lea was the C.O) and he didn’t receive his promotion until later in his career.
Nine Days in September 