Carve her name with Pride is directed and co-written by Lewis Gilbert. Gilbert is one of the unsung heroes of British cinema who has directed on of the best James Bond film ever made.
The film is based on true events. Violette Szabo (Virginia McKenna) is half French (French mother) and after a whirlwind romance she marries a French officer who dies in North Africa.
Widowed with a two year old daughter she joins up with the British Special Operations Executive to be a spy. This includes undertaking a tough and rigorous training regime where her trainer reckons she is not up to the task.
Violette is sent into occupied France in 1944 to work under an experienced SOE agent Tony Fraser (Paul Scofield.) After a successful first mission she is captured after a more dangerous endeavour.
She is tortured by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp where she is executed. After the war her daughter received a posthumous George Cross in recognition of her mother's bravery.
This is a crisp film without much pomp but plenty of clipped accents. It does feel a kind of old fashioned. There is a hint of a burgeoning romance between Fraser and Szabo but you get a hint of the horrors Szabo endured in the interrogation scenes and the concentration camp segment where there is effective use of make up to make Szabo looked haggard and even though you feel it is restrained those scenes still look harrowing.
This film along with Odette shows the roles and sacrifices made by women in the war which unfortunately some men will love to airbrush out. Just look at the frothing of the mouth in modern action films that has a female heroine!
Virginia McKenna gives a solid and stoic performance, there is a strong performance by Scofield. There are small supporting turns from Jack Warner and Bill Owen.
The film is based on true events. Violette Szabo (Virginia McKenna) is half French (French mother) and after a whirlwind romance she marries a French officer who dies in North Africa.
Widowed with a two year old daughter she joins up with the British Special Operations Executive to be a spy. This includes undertaking a tough and rigorous training regime where her trainer reckons she is not up to the task.
Violette is sent into occupied France in 1944 to work under an experienced SOE agent Tony Fraser (Paul Scofield.) After a successful first mission she is captured after a more dangerous endeavour.
She is tortured by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp where she is executed. After the war her daughter received a posthumous George Cross in recognition of her mother's bravery.
This is a crisp film without much pomp but plenty of clipped accents. It does feel a kind of old fashioned. There is a hint of a burgeoning romance between Fraser and Szabo but you get a hint of the horrors Szabo endured in the interrogation scenes and the concentration camp segment where there is effective use of make up to make Szabo looked haggard and even though you feel it is restrained those scenes still look harrowing.
This film along with Odette shows the roles and sacrifices made by women in the war which unfortunately some men will love to airbrush out. Just look at the frothing of the mouth in modern action films that has a female heroine!
Virginia McKenna gives a solid and stoic performance, there is a strong performance by Scofield. There are small supporting turns from Jack Warner and Bill Owen.