Here Will I Nest

Thomas Talbot, at age 22, is in a romance with Susanne Johnson, the niece of Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant. However, racism leads to the end of their relationship. Talbot enters a relationship with Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom, but breaks up with her. Talbot, now 39, greets the first settlers from Europe after spending six years on the shores of Lake Erie. ==Cast==

• John Burton as Thomas Talbot • Robina Richardson as Susanne Johnson • George Simpson as George Crane • Campbell Calder as Mahlon Burwell • William Hitchens as Jeffrey Hunter • Alex Burr as Jeremy Crandall • E.S. Detwiler as William Hatch • Earl Gray as Simon McAllister • Ralph Gray as Robert McAllister • John Sullivan as John Pearce • Bernice Harper as Fanny Pearce • Mary Ashwell as Isabella Pearce ==Production==

Hilda Mary Hooke wrote a screenplay based on her 1938 play Here Will I Nest. It was the first film to adapt a Canadian play and was the only English-language film adaptation of a Canadian play until ''Fortune and Men's Eyes (1971). Peter Morris described the film as being an amateur production. Melburn Turner stated that the original title was Talbot of Canada and that it premiered under that name. However, The London Free Press'' review of the film did not mention this title. Turner was a member of the same dramatical societies as Hooke. He directed, shot, and edited the film. Filming was done in Byron and London, Ontario, during the summer of 1941 on a budget of $5,000 (). It was shot using 16 mm Kodachrome film and was the first dramatic feature-length film in Canada to be shot in colour. Turner later made The Immortal Scoundrel, the first Canadian feature-length colour film in French. ==Release==

The film premiered on 31 March 1942, at a private showing at the Elsie Perrin Williams Memorial Library in London. Turner, who was the projectionist for the event, had to remove all of his clothing except for his underwear due to the heat in the room. The only other screening of the film was in the home of Mitchell Hepburn, who fell asleep halfway through the film. It was not commercially released. Most of the film was destroyed by a fire. The film was believed to be completely lost until 17 March 1998, when Chris Doty discovered 15–16 minutes of the film with no audio in the Library and Archives Canada. His restoration, released in 2003, had lip readers determine what words were being said by the actors and then dubbed them. Only a few pages of the original script survive. ==References==