The filmscripts of Dylan Thomas

Between 1942 and 1951 Dylan Thomas wrote or contributed to at least thirty one film scripts, comprising wartime propaganda documentaries and feature films. This study examines the literary value of Thomas’s scripts, and also their place in cinema, and in the evolution of Thomas’s writing style. One chapter is devoted to a detailed study of an unpublished Thomas script (Suffer Little Children) which is included in the appendix in its entirety, annotated to demonstrate the method of composition. The final chapter concentrates on the direct impact and influence of screenwriting on the later poetry, and specifically on the composition of Under Milk Wood, highlighting specific literary devices developed while writing for film, and fundamental to the shape and tone of the final radio play