Although I might not have thought of former Charley's Angel Jaclyn Smith as my
choice for Florence Nightingale, Smith does a nice job in the role. She joins Kay
Francis and Anna Neagle who had gone before her playing The Lady with a lamp.
Florence Nightingale quite early on was determined that she would not lead the life of a Jane Austen type Victorian woman. Learn needlepoint and wait for a good match for a husband. And make the best of it if the match ain't so good.
She wanted a life of service and she went to Germany to learn nursing. She went to work in the Crimean War resisted by the military establishment, partly because it was foreign ideas she was espousing and mostly because she was a woman.
Nevertheless she persisted and her ideas on hospital care and nursing care are so standard today they seem obvious. Still a battle had to be fought and won.
In the male cast members to Timothys stand out. Timothy Dalton plays her fiance Richard Milnes whom she painfully rejects for her nursing mission. The other is Timothy West playing William Russell of the London Times whose reporting from the Crimea made her a national heroine. His is a life that a movie could be made from.
Jaclyn Smith joins Kay Francis and Anna Neagle in portraying Florence Nightingale beautifully and well.
Florence Nightingale quite early on was determined that she would not lead the life of a Jane Austen type Victorian woman. Learn needlepoint and wait for a good match for a husband. And make the best of it if the match ain't so good.
She wanted a life of service and she went to Germany to learn nursing. She went to work in the Crimean War resisted by the military establishment, partly because it was foreign ideas she was espousing and mostly because she was a woman.
Nevertheless she persisted and her ideas on hospital care and nursing care are so standard today they seem obvious. Still a battle had to be fought and won.
In the male cast members to Timothys stand out. Timothy Dalton plays her fiance Richard Milnes whom she painfully rejects for her nursing mission. The other is Timothy West playing William Russell of the London Times whose reporting from the Crimea made her a national heroine. His is a life that a movie could be made from.
Jaclyn Smith joins Kay Francis and Anna Neagle in portraying Florence Nightingale beautifully and well.