NURSE EDITH CAVELL (1939) was made by RKO prior to U. S. involvement in the second world war. It is a fantastic motion picture.
Since the title is in the public domain, most copies that exist online are old syndicated prints. These prints tend to be inferior in visual quality. Fortunately, the British Film Institute recently did a digital restoration and if you can find a copy of that print, please do. You will not be disappointed.
Anna Neagle does a brilliant job as the British nurse who goes to Belgium and later becomes a martyr. We see her tending to the sick on all sides. She provides diligent care for wounded Belgians, French, British and Germans. Her goal was to alleviate suffering for all humankind. How ironic that she suffered a terrible fate, death before a firing squad.
Nurse Cavell was convicted of treason by the Germans in late 1915, a situation that generated much interest internationally. Her sentence was quickly carried out and she was executed shortly after her trial. This film spends the last half hour covering the trial, various appeals for mercy, and the death scene itself plus a coda that takes place in Britain after the war has ended where she receives a national funeral.
The first hour of the film shows how she gradually becomes a part of an underground movement to help prisoners of war escape the German manhunts and flee to safety. The story begins with an introductory preface at Christmas before WWI breaks out, then it flashes ahead six months where we see her become involved with various individuals needing medical care and political refuge. Aiding Edith Cavell in these efforts is an interesting group of older women who form a delightfully rebellious cohort.
The nurse's cronies are played by Edna May Oliver as an aristocrat who becomes less self-centered after learning of atrocities committed by the German military on her own land; ZaSu Pitts in a slightly comic role as a woman who helps smuggle POWs across the border; and May Robson as an elderly store owner who first seeks out Cavell's help when her own grandson is wanted by the German police. Together these women save over 200 men.
The script and performances are all quite sharp, and Herbert Wilcox's direction is superb. Wilcox had previously produced a silent version of the story a decade earlier in his native Britain with Sybil Thorndike. Off screen Wilcox and Neagle were romantically involved and would marry a few years later. He produced her starring vehicles from the late 1930s into the 1950s.
I do feel as if Neagle deserved an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. She skillfully underplays the horrors that her medical character faces, and the execution scene is played with remarkable grace and dignity. George Sanders has a supporting role as a German officer determined to bring Nurse Cavell to "justice" and in some ways he reminds me of Inspector Javert from Les Miserables. As for the trio of character actresses that support Miss Neagle throughout much of the picture, I would say that all are equally good though May Robson steals a courtroom scene during the trial when she has a very critical outburst.
Since the title is in the public domain, most copies that exist online are old syndicated prints. These prints tend to be inferior in visual quality. Fortunately, the British Film Institute recently did a digital restoration and if you can find a copy of that print, please do. You will not be disappointed.
Anna Neagle does a brilliant job as the British nurse who goes to Belgium and later becomes a martyr. We see her tending to the sick on all sides. She provides diligent care for wounded Belgians, French, British and Germans. Her goal was to alleviate suffering for all humankind. How ironic that she suffered a terrible fate, death before a firing squad.
Nurse Cavell was convicted of treason by the Germans in late 1915, a situation that generated much interest internationally. Her sentence was quickly carried out and she was executed shortly after her trial. This film spends the last half hour covering the trial, various appeals for mercy, and the death scene itself plus a coda that takes place in Britain after the war has ended where she receives a national funeral.
The first hour of the film shows how she gradually becomes a part of an underground movement to help prisoners of war escape the German manhunts and flee to safety. The story begins with an introductory preface at Christmas before WWI breaks out, then it flashes ahead six months where we see her become involved with various individuals needing medical care and political refuge. Aiding Edith Cavell in these efforts is an interesting group of older women who form a delightfully rebellious cohort.
The nurse's cronies are played by Edna May Oliver as an aristocrat who becomes less self-centered after learning of atrocities committed by the German military on her own land; ZaSu Pitts in a slightly comic role as a woman who helps smuggle POWs across the border; and May Robson as an elderly store owner who first seeks out Cavell's help when her own grandson is wanted by the German police. Together these women save over 200 men.
The script and performances are all quite sharp, and Herbert Wilcox's direction is superb. Wilcox had previously produced a silent version of the story a decade earlier in his native Britain with Sybil Thorndike. Off screen Wilcox and Neagle were romantically involved and would marry a few years later. He produced her starring vehicles from the late 1930s into the 1950s.
I do feel as if Neagle deserved an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. She skillfully underplays the horrors that her medical character faces, and the execution scene is played with remarkable grace and dignity. George Sanders has a supporting role as a German officer determined to bring Nurse Cavell to "justice" and in some ways he reminds me of Inspector Javert from Les Miserables. As for the trio of character actresses that support Miss Neagle throughout much of the picture, I would say that all are equally good though May Robson steals a courtroom scene during the trial when she has a very critical outburst.