Director: MAURICE ELVEY. Screenplay: Elizabeth Baron. Additional scenes: Roland Pertwee, Major C. Nelson. Based on the 1941 novel One Pair of Feet by Monica Dickens. Photography: Robert Krasker. Film editor: Frederick Wilson. Music composed by John Greenwood, played by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Muir Mathieson. Art director: Alex Vetchinsky. Camera operator: Jack Hildyard. Technical advisers: Captain H. Brierley, house governor, and Miss C.H. Alexander, matron, of the London Hospital. Assistant director: William N. Boyle. Production manager: Vincent Permane. Sound recording: John S. Dennis. Western Electric Sound System. Associate producer: Phil C. Samuel. Producer: Leslie Howard. A Two Cities — Leslie Howard Production, presented by J. Arthur Rank.
A Tribute to All Those Who Nurse, made with the assistance and collaboration of the Ministry of Health.
Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. Released in the U.K. by General Film Distributors: 29 November 1943. Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 21 December 1944 (sic). 8,367 feet. 93 minutes.
NOTES: Leslie Howard's final film. When the Germans learned he was a passenger on an unarmed, civilian flight from Spain, a neutral country, the plane was shot down in flames. All lives were lost. At the time, the German authorities claimed the strafing of the plane was a genuine mistake. It has since come to light that the "mistake" was a deliberate act of revenge for Howard's "Pimpernel Smith" which had infuriated Hitler.
VIEWERS' GUIDE: Although not directly shown on camera, one of the film's surgical procedures is too frightening for younger children.
PROPAGANDA: Explicitly, nursing is a noble, completely self- sacrificing profession. Implicitly, civilians are undaunted by wartime problems in general, bombing raids in particular.
COMMENT: Maurice Elvey's second-last big hit. Elvey made more features than any other British director. After a most successful career in "A" features, around this period he turned to the "B", finishing his career in the 1950s with some really atrocious quota quickies. Because of this, and the unavailability of his earlier work, he was despised and neglected by the auteur critics of the 1960s. The young men with tape recorders made not a single interview, even though he was readily accessible, lecturing at the London School of Film Technique until his death in 1967.
Now that Elvey's major films are again being screened, we can see what a wonderful opportunity to gain insights into the world of British movie-making, was deliberately missed. "The Lamp Still Burns" is a good example of his later "A" style, with meticulous attention paid both to background detail and performances. The emphasis is on realism, the style naturalistic and for the most part self-effacing, almost text-book in its methods.
Each scene is observed with a preliminary long shot that often runs for a whole minute or two before the camera cuts to either two-shots or close-ups. There is very little camera movement, not usually during dialogue (unless the director wishes to make a point). On the few occasions the camera tracks, it is usually during the scene- setting long shot. This economical and non-showy style focuses the camera fully on the dialogue and players, most of whom stand up well to this scrutiny, speaking their realistic lines with conviction and sincerity.
Rosamund John, although not always flatteringly photographed, come across believably, though the film's stand-out portrait is painted by Cathleen Nesbitt as the no-nonsense matron. With one exception, all the players are likewise effective. Stewart Granger lets the side down a bit, though he does have a difficult role. He plays too colorlessly here to excite interest. If he'd come to the part later in his career, he'd have given it more shading and charisma.
The script is leavened with a bit of humor, provided mostly by Dr. John Laurie (of all people), patients Leslie Dwyer and Wylie Watson, and hospital chairman Ernest Thesiger.
Some critics would say that the film is at its best not during the romantic or even humorous episodes, but in its documentary record of day-to-day hospital life with all its petty restrictions, strict class distinctions, and unnerving operations (in which the tension is increased to an almost unbearable level by a bombing raid). Nursing in fact is unglamorous, unrewarding, unbelievably hard- working and distinctly Dickensian.
So real is the atmosphere that it seems to me the film was not created only in the studio but shot largely on location in a real hospital, presumably London. The sets often look just too authentic to be anything but real. The brilliant cinematographer Robert Krasker was a lifelong specialist in using real locations (Brief Encounter, Odd Man Out, The Third Man) though this film lacks the attractive sheen he gave later productions. He had not yet mastered his technique, but the very grayness of the images here does reinforce the documentary realism of "The Lamp Still Burns".
A Tribute to All Those Who Nurse, made with the assistance and collaboration of the Ministry of Health.
Not copyrighted or theatrically released in the U.S.A. Released in the U.K. by General Film Distributors: 29 November 1943. Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 21 December 1944 (sic). 8,367 feet. 93 minutes.
NOTES: Leslie Howard's final film. When the Germans learned he was a passenger on an unarmed, civilian flight from Spain, a neutral country, the plane was shot down in flames. All lives were lost. At the time, the German authorities claimed the strafing of the plane was a genuine mistake. It has since come to light that the "mistake" was a deliberate act of revenge for Howard's "Pimpernel Smith" which had infuriated Hitler.
VIEWERS' GUIDE: Although not directly shown on camera, one of the film's surgical procedures is too frightening for younger children.
PROPAGANDA: Explicitly, nursing is a noble, completely self- sacrificing profession. Implicitly, civilians are undaunted by wartime problems in general, bombing raids in particular.
COMMENT: Maurice Elvey's second-last big hit. Elvey made more features than any other British director. After a most successful career in "A" features, around this period he turned to the "B", finishing his career in the 1950s with some really atrocious quota quickies. Because of this, and the unavailability of his earlier work, he was despised and neglected by the auteur critics of the 1960s. The young men with tape recorders made not a single interview, even though he was readily accessible, lecturing at the London School of Film Technique until his death in 1967.
Now that Elvey's major films are again being screened, we can see what a wonderful opportunity to gain insights into the world of British movie-making, was deliberately missed. "The Lamp Still Burns" is a good example of his later "A" style, with meticulous attention paid both to background detail and performances. The emphasis is on realism, the style naturalistic and for the most part self-effacing, almost text-book in its methods.
Each scene is observed with a preliminary long shot that often runs for a whole minute or two before the camera cuts to either two-shots or close-ups. There is very little camera movement, not usually during dialogue (unless the director wishes to make a point). On the few occasions the camera tracks, it is usually during the scene- setting long shot. This economical and non-showy style focuses the camera fully on the dialogue and players, most of whom stand up well to this scrutiny, speaking their realistic lines with conviction and sincerity.
Rosamund John, although not always flatteringly photographed, come across believably, though the film's stand-out portrait is painted by Cathleen Nesbitt as the no-nonsense matron. With one exception, all the players are likewise effective. Stewart Granger lets the side down a bit, though he does have a difficult role. He plays too colorlessly here to excite interest. If he'd come to the part later in his career, he'd have given it more shading and charisma.
The script is leavened with a bit of humor, provided mostly by Dr. John Laurie (of all people), patients Leslie Dwyer and Wylie Watson, and hospital chairman Ernest Thesiger.
Some critics would say that the film is at its best not during the romantic or even humorous episodes, but in its documentary record of day-to-day hospital life with all its petty restrictions, strict class distinctions, and unnerving operations (in which the tension is increased to an almost unbearable level by a bombing raid). Nursing in fact is unglamorous, unrewarding, unbelievably hard- working and distinctly Dickensian.
So real is the atmosphere that it seems to me the film was not created only in the studio but shot largely on location in a real hospital, presumably London. The sets often look just too authentic to be anything but real. The brilliant cinematographer Robert Krasker was a lifelong specialist in using real locations (Brief Encounter, Odd Man Out, The Third Man) though this film lacks the attractive sheen he gave later productions. He had not yet mastered his technique, but the very grayness of the images here does reinforce the documentary realism of "The Lamp Still Burns".