The Lady with a Lamp

Plot

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 to battlefield hospitals, and in so doing changes the course of medical history.

Main cast

• Anna Neagle as Florence Nightingale
• Michael Wilding as Lord Herbert
• Felix Aylmer as Lord Palmerston
• Gladys Young as Mrs Bracebridge
• Julian D'Albie as Mr Bracebridge
• Arthur Young as William Gladstone
• Edwin Styles as Mr Nightingale
• Helen Shingler as Parthenope Nightingale
• Rosalie Crutchley as Mrs Sidney Herbert
• Clement McCallin as Richard M. Milnes
• Helena Pickard as Queen Victoria
• Peter Graves as Prince Albert
• Sybil Thorndike as Miss Bosanquet
• Monckton Hoffe as Lord Stratford
• Cecil Trouncer as Sir Douglass Dawson
• Michael Craig as wounded soldier

Production

It was shot at Shepperton Studios outside London. Location shooting took place at Cole Green railway station in Hertfordshire and at Lea Hurst, the Nightingale family home, near Matlock in Derbyshire. The film's sets were designed by the art director William C. Andrews. The film includes Queen Victoria as a character; Neagle had previously played the monarch in two 1930s films.

Reception

Box office

The film was popular at the British box office. It was judged by Kinematograph Weekly as a "notable performer" at British cinemas in 1951.

Critical reception

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."

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."

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."

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 of Lord Palmerston. Herbert Wilcox, as always, directs in a plain, straightforward manner."

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."

References

References

1. Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'', Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p495
2. "The Lady with a Lamp".
3. (2009-04-16). "BFI | Film & TV Database | The LADY WITH THE LAMP (1951)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk.
4. "The Lady with a Lamp (1951) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie.
5. Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry".
6. (20 December 1951). "These were the winners in 1951".
7. (1 January 1951). "The Lady with a Lamp".
8. "The Lady With A Lamp Review". Movies.tvguide.com.
9. "Lady with a Lamp, The (1951) - Overview". Turner Classic Movies.
10. (1950-12-31). "The Lady with the Lamp". Variety.
11. (2003). "British cinema of the 1950s : the decline of deference". Oxford University Press.