La storia d'Edith Cavell

It has been over 100 years since the Germans murdered Edith Cavell but every time I see this film I still get angry that this really happened. Despite being British she wasn't interned during the war but continued to work as a nurse caring for all nationalities. Despite this she was tried for treason whilst being a British citizen and not German then executed. The Americans tried to stop it, just not hard enough.

A moving story highlighting one of many atrocities undertaken by the then German army who murdered thousands of Belgian and French civilians for no good reason. A warning of things to come and could again if we are not careful.

Anna Negale was well known for playing historical figures and despite being some 15 years younger than Cavell puts in a fine performance. Also a mention for George Sanders as the stiff Prussian officer tasked with bringing Cavell and her organisation down.

Previous reviewers have complained about the quality, well if you didn't know it has been beautifully remastered, Talking Pictures have shown it recently and it is also available on DVD

Having just finished the 2 pictures in which she played Queen Victoria, Neagle continued in the same vein with her portrayal of Nurse Edith Carell. This film was made by producer Herbert Wilcox in Hollywood at the studios of RKO Radio Pictures,as would other of her wartime films.She does an excellent job in this polished production with a good American cast

Beautifully shot (if you find decent print) and reasonably accurate - unlike Cinderella Man, Quills, Hurricane and other despicable "biography" junk. What is the most surprising that the story is not "sexed up": the main heroes are mostly middle-aged or elderly women - Edna May Olivier as the Countess steals the whole show!

This is a shocking account of war directly from reality, telling the story of the indefatigable effort of a nurse to work against it, by simply nursing wounded soldiers and helping them back to life - and to go on fighting. For that she is ultimately prosecuted by the Germans and promptly executed, despite the fact that she is a woman and a nurse at that, who has saved many lives and only worked idealistically for humanitarianism. It is also the story of other brave women who assisted her, like Dame Edna May Oliver in one of her formidable roles, and her fellow nurses, who never gave up on her. The film is upsetting but overwhelming in its uncompromising realism and deals a definite stamp of inhumanity on the always absurd business of any war, that never in any circumstances made any sense.

Deeply moving dramatisation of the heroism of the English nurse Edith Cavell and her Belgian supporters, who smuggled about 200 Allied soldiers and airmen out of German-occupied Belgium until she was caught, tried and on 12 October 1915 shot at dawn. Notable for the immense restraint and dignity shown by Anna Neagle in the title role, caring equally for wounded German troops and completely unafraid of blustering German officers. A devout Anglican, above her duty to her country she placed the overriding duty of saving life.

Diplomats at the Brussels embassy of the neutral USA made huge efforts to save her life once captured but the Germans were implacable. After the war, her disinterred remains were given a state funeral in Westminster Abbey and then reburied at Norwich Cathedral. This film came out as sacrifices were again being asked from English women, while the USA watched Belgium being crushed a second time by an even more vicious German regime.