When a writer of fiction turns to propaganda, the results can be unpleasant, even when the writer is as talented and skillful as Somerset Maugham. In 1941, the British Ministry of Information commissioned of Maugham a script for a movie that would show the U.S. the effects that World War Two was having on British families. Once Somerset had finished the script, on request he turned it into a novel to promote the movie; both were entitled "The Hour Before the Dawn". The entire project took but two months, and brought him $90,000.

The novel, published in 1942, shows little evidence of Maugham's strengths in characterization, none of his eye for detail, and little of his rare intuition about human foilibles and motivations. The story is predictable and shallow, notwithstanding its attempt to represent in microcosm the valiant efforts of Britain to cope with the war.

The menfolk are called to war, and the women and male pacifists stay at home and take in evacuees from the continent. The characters are not especially well-crafted, and often caricatures. Dora, the Austrian refugee, turns out to be a spy, to no great surprise. Jim, the pacifist, misunderstood and derided, marries her but ends up killing her with his bare hands when he discovers her betrayal. May, who has decided to divorce Roger and marry Dick, puts aside her personal feelings at the war's outbreak for the good of England, and eventually resolves to stay with her husband. But when Dick returns from the front injured and blind, she knows she must leave her husband to take care of him for the rest of his life.

Newsweek characterized the book as "brittle, and trivial", and elsewhere the book was largely dismissed as hack work. Although the book has its engaging moments, it is a period-piece and one of Maugham's very weakest efforts. The movie was released in 1944; it stars Franchot Tone and Joan Fountaine, and Maugham appears on screen to offer introductory remarks. ( )