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Idleness is for peacetime. During a war, everybody - and every plot of land - must do their part
Overview
She never expected to find happiness with a hoe, but a lady of leisure discovers the joy of getting her hands dirty and doing her duty on the home front in this short film from the WWI Ministry of Information. Turning a lawn over for a vegetable plot is no sacrifice when fellow Britons are starving, so it's time to swap the white lace dress for a pinafore and gardening gloves. The inserted shot of crying infants would no doubt tug at the audience's conscience too.
Cecil Hepworth, who made this short film, was one of Britain's best film directors in the early silent period. Alma Taylor and Henry Edwards, who appear in this film, were among his regular leading actors. The well-known Ministry of Information of WWII had two short-lived predecessors during WWI: 1917's Department of Information and 1918's Ministry of Information.
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