Production Background
Because the British authorities in 1939 wanted as many people as possible to enlist for World War II, it was not a good time to be talking about ex-servicemen having problems. Although the film had a première at the Houses of Parliament before an invited audience of MPs and charity workers, it was never shown to the public. A fiscal disagreement between the charity and the agent who was booking the film caused it to be pulled from distribution.
Smith wasn't just thought to be lost, most people didn't even know that it even existed. It wasn't included in any filmography of Michael Powell, and Powell only refers to it briefly and obscurely in his autobiography. The film was discovered in 2003 through the detective work of Mark Fuller of Bristol and a safety print was made by the BFI. This was shown at film festivals in Vienna and Bologna in 2004 but it didn't have its first public screening in the U.K. until 15 October 2004 when it was shown in Canterbury, 65 years after it was completed.
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