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Nurse Edith Cavell (Imperadio-RKO), the austere-faced, 50-year-old Englishwoman who was executed by a German firing squad in Brussels in 1915 for aiding the escape of fugitives from German prison camps, has appeared as the heroine of three cinemas. The first, and most bravura, version was made in the U. S. in 1918, year before Nurse Cavell was reinterred by the British in Norwich Cathedral and Germany took the villain's rap at Versailles. In 1928 British Producer Herbert Wilcox presented in Dawn a more objective edition in keeping with the forgive-&-forget spirit of Locarno. The third, made in Hollywood this year by Producer Wilcox and his brightest star, Anna Neagle (Victoria the Great, Sixty Glorious Years), was apparently designed as the appeasement or Munich, version. Released last week, it seemed likely, by grace of the times and its air of Chamberlainish understatement, to become one of the most devastating and effective propaganda pictures ever made. Actress Neagle's Nurse Cavell is much as history made her, a lonely Englishwoman running a nursing home in Brussels when the German war machine spreads over Belgium. When the grandson of her friend Mme Rappard (May Robson) escapes from the Germans and with her help gets away to The Netherlands, she thinks her duty lies with others like him. With the help of Mme Rappard, the resourceful Countess Mavon (Edna May Oliver) and a bargeman's wife (Zasu Pitts), she organizes a large-scale underground railway whose humanitarian objectives are naturally misunderstood by the equally dutiful German military authorities. She spirits 200 captives out of the war zone before the intelligence service catches up with her.
In response to an advertisement by Producer Wilcox for an expert on the décor of Brussels in 1915, one turned up, established his competence by proving that he was the shoemaker who forged credentials for Nurse Cavell and her friends. He not only did the décor, but re-enacted his old role. Retired U. S. Ambassador to Brussels Hugh Gibson, who was Secretary of the Legation in Brussels in 1915, allowed Producer Wilcox to show him vainly pleading for Edith Cavell with the German authorities on behalf of his ailing chief, Minister Brand Whitlock. In one instance Producer Wilcox rejected history as too melodramatic. One member of the Cavell firing squad, a private named Rammler, refused to carry out his command, followed Nurse Cavell before his comrades' guns. In the picture Edith Cavell dies alone.
CURRENT & CHOICE
Stanley and Livingstone (Spencer Tracy, Sir Cedric Hardwicke; TIME, Aug.14).
Four Feathers (John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith; TIME, Aug. 21).
The Wizard of Oz (Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr; TIME, Aug. 21).
The Star Maker (Bing Crosby, Louise Campbell, Ned Sparks; TIME, Sept. 4).
* Last week The Women was going great guns in London when the great guns began to shoot.