NURSE EDITH CAVELL

UK, 1939, 108 minutes, Black and white.
Anna Neagle, Edna May Oliver, George Sanders, May Robson, Zasu Pitts, H.B. Warner, Sophie Stewart, Mary Howard, Robert Coote.
Directed by Herbert Wilcox.

Nurse Edith Cavell is one of the many films directed by Herbert Wilcox with his wife Anna Neagle. From the mid-1930s to the end of the 1950s, Anna Neagle made films only with her husband. She did many historical films including Nell Gwyn, two films as Queen Victoria, Amy Johnson, Florence Nightingale and this portrait of Nurse Edith Cavell, the English nurse in Brussels who tended to the Germans but who arranged for the escape of two hundred allied troops. She was arrested, tried and executed by firing squad in 1915, causing an outrage around the world at the Germans’ execution of a woman in the war context.

Anna Neagle gives a very stoic, dignified performance, the typical British heroine as perceived at the time. It is interesting to note that the film was released just before the outbreak of World War Two. It portrayed characters and events of just under a quarter of a century earlier.

There is an excellent supporting cast. Edna May Oliver is a countess who helps with helping the troops escape. She had been strong in versions of David Copperfield, Rome and Juliet, Miss Pross in A Tale of Two Cities and one of her final roles was the memorable Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice. George Sanders is a harsh German officer. May Robson is a grandmother whose sons are involved in the war. Zasu Pitts portrays the wife of a barge owner who takes the soldiers into Holland. H.B. Warner (Cecil B. de Mille’s Jesus in King of Kings) is an American diplomat. Robert Coote appears in an early typically British soldier role.

The film is interesting in its portrayal of the German attack in World War One as remembered at the time, showing the work of Edith Cavell in the hospitals as well as the details of the escape route. It is also interesting to note that the escape route was organised and staffed by a group of women – a seemingly unlikely group who achieved a great deal.

1. The tribute to Edith Cavell, so soon after her death, the books, her letters? Her reputation? The execution? The postscript and the ceremony in Westminster Abbey?

2. The re-creation of Brussels at the beginning of World War One, the city, the buildings, the hospital? The German headquarters? The streets? The countryside, the castle? Authentic feel? Musical score?

3. Edith Cavell, her Norwich background? Reference to her mother? Her work in Brussels, skills, as a nurse? The matron? Her staff and their loyalty? Her friendship with the countess? With Madame Rappard? With Madame Moulin? The treatment of the ill? The cake, the mother’s death?

4. Sarajevo, the outbreak of the war? The collage of the German advance through Belgium, to Liege, Namur, Louvain? To Brussels? The occupation? The tanks, the soldiers? The officers? The governor of occupied Brussels? His officials? The mayor, the stances against the Germans?

5. Edith Cavell and her caring for the German soldier? Her soothing him? The German doctor? His finding her caring for the British soldier, his not revealing the truth?

6. The wounded men? The range, the numbers, French, British? The plane crash? The countess and her involvement, her life at the castle, her servant? Her getting the documents from the shop? Her playing cards, being part of the committee? Madame Rappard, her grandsons, the escapee, getting him onto the barge? The postcard? Madame Moulin, her husband, her ready agreement to take all the soldiers to Holland? Friendship with the Germans, getting them to mail the postcards? The four women, their efforts, the increasing number of men?

7. The men themselves, Bungey as the genial comic British soldier? The range of other soldiers?

8. Captain Heinrichs, the reprimand from the German commander, his talking with the officer, the officer going undercover, pretending to be a prisoner, the countess informing the authorities? His infiltration, going to the hospital, the revelations?

9. Heinrichs, his searching of the hospital? The failure to find the men? His return and the arrest of Edith Cavell?

10. The arrest of the other women, the imprisonment? The court case, closed? The prosecution, the death penalty? Edith Cavell and her admitting what she had done? Ready to die?

11. The political concern around the world, in Britain, in the United States? The American legation? Mr Gibson and his visits, pleading the cause, the treatment by the German officials?

12. The nurses at the hospital, their loyalty to Edith Cavell, their visiting her in prison, the flowers? The information about her execution?

13. Mr Gibson going to the opera, the commander, his disdain? His motivation to make an example of Edith Cavell?

14. Edith in prison, the chaplain, the spiritual reflections, the final ceremonies? Her walking to her execution, the dignity in her death? Her being ready, the mystery of God’s will?

15. The aftermath, her burial in Westminster Abbey? The tributes to her humanitarian work in war?