| The Lady with a Lamp | |
|---|---|
 Australian daybill poster | |
| Directed by | Herbert Wilcox |
| Written by | Warren Chetham Strode |
| Based on | The Lady with a Lamp byReginald Berkeley |
| Produced by | Herbert Wilcox |
| Starring | Anna Neagle Michael Wilding Felix Aylmer |
| Cinematography | Max Greene |
| Edited by | Bill Lewthwaite |
| Music by | Anthony Collins |
| Color process | Black and white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | British Lion Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £151,091 (UK)[1] |
The Lady with a Lamp is a 1951 Britishhistoricaldrama film directed byHerbert Wilcox and starringAnna Neagle,Michael Wilding andFelix Aylmer.[2][3] It was written byWarren Chetham Strode based on the 1929 playThe Lady with a Lamp byReginald Berkeley. The film depicts the life ofFlorence Nightingale and her work with wounded British soldiers during theCrimean War.
Illustrating the political complexities the hard-headed nurse had to battle in order to achieve sanitary medical conditions during the Crimean War. Opposed in the uppermost circles of British government because she is "merely" a woman, Florence Nightingale is championed by the Hon.Sidney Herbert, minister of war. Herbert pulls strings to allow Nightingale and her nursing staff access tobattlefield hospitals, and in so doing changes the course of medical history.[4]
It was shot atShepperton Studios outsideLondon. Location shooting took place atCole Green railway station inHertfordshire and at Lea Hurst, the Nightingale family home, nearMatlock inDerbyshire. The film's sets were designed by theart directorWilliam C. Andrews.
The film was popular at the British box office.[5]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "What the handling and the performance conspicuously and disastrously lack is the quality of toughness – physical, mental and moral – which was the basis of Florence Nightingale's character. ... Anna Neagle's performance, although marked by obvious sincerity of intention, has softened the redoubtable Florence Nightingale into a figure of dull and conventional nobility. These defects in conception apart, the film is a slow, sedate, refined chronicle which rises to drama only on the very rare occasions when the material itself takes command."[6]
TV Guide gave the film three out of four stars, and noted, "the contrast in settings--between stately British homes and the squalor of the hospital--focuses the viewer's attentions on what the real battles were. Honorable mention should be given to Lewthwaite's editing of the war sequences."[7]
Leonard Maltin also gave the film three out of four stars, noting a "Methodical recreation of 19th- century nurse-crusader Florence Nightingale, tastefully enacted by Neagle."[8]
Variety observed, "Anna Neagle adds another portrait to her screen gallery of famous women. Her characterization of Florence Nightingale is a sincerely moving study...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 ofLord Palmerston. Herbert Wilcox, as always, directs in a plain, straightforward manner."[9]
According to academics Sue Harper and Vince Porter, "The film is poor on characterization and concentrates on Nightingale’s powers of social consolidation by combining female energy with an insistence on ‘duty’. This was Wilcox’s last attempt to play innovation against tradition. After this, his films always embraced traditional structures of feeling with disastrous box office results."[10]