Wilcox-Neagle/British Lion. Director Herbert Wilcox; Producer Herbert Wilcox; Screenplay Warren Chetham-Strode; Camera Austin Dempster; Editor Bill Lewthwaite; Music Anthony Collins; Art Director William C. Andrews
Anna Neagle
Michael Wilding
Gladys Young
Felix Aylmer
Sybil Thorndike
Arthur Young
In the Lady with the Lamp, Anna Neagle adds another portrait to her screen gallery of famous women. Her characterization of Florence Nightingale is a sincerely moving study.
The script, taken from Regginald Berkeley's stage play, focuses attention on the more exciting and colorful aspects of Florence Nightingale's campaign. Main theme is told against a political background which brings in such famous characters as Gladstone, Lord Palmerston, and Sidney Herbert.
The story opens shotly before the Crimean war when Florence Nightingale, with a training in nursing, refuses to be a member of the leisure class into which born, but insists on continuing her work. The Minister of War, a steadfast believer in Nightingale's theories, gets her to organize a band of nurses to tend the wounded at Scutari.
Michael Wilding is not too happily cast as Sidney Herbert, War Minister. Within limitations, he makes the best of this part. The strong feature cast includes Felix Aylmer, with an exceptionally good study of Lord Palmerston. Herbert Wilcox, as always, directs in a plain, straightforward manner.
(B&W) Extract of a review from 1951. Running time: 110 MIN.
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