1984 (1956 film) 1984 (1956 film) 1984 is a 1956 British black-and-white science fiction film, based on the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell, depicting a totalitarian future society. This is the first cinema rendition of the story, directed by Michael Anderson and starring Edmond O'Brien as protagonist Winston Smith, and featuring Donald Pleasence, Jan Sterling, and Michael Redgrave. The character O'Brien, the antagonist, was renamed "O'Connor", due to the shared surname of the actor Edmond O'Brien. The film was distributed in 1956 on a double bill with another British sci-fi film, "The Gamma People". After the customary distributor agreement expired, the film
George Orwell gave a talk at the Adelphi Summer School held at Langham, entitled "An Outsider Sees the Distressed Areas"; others who spoke at the school included John Strachey, Max Plowman, Karl Polanyi and Reinhold Niebuhr. Orwell's research for "The Road to Wigan Pier" led to him being placed under surveillance by the Special Branch from 1936, for 12 years, until one year before the publication of "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Orwell married Eileen O'Shaughnessy on 9 June 1936. Shortly afterwards, the political crisis began in Spain and Orwell followed developments there closely. At the end of the year, concerned by Francisco Franco's military