Great plot, excellently under-stated performances, writing and direction. The fact that this film was made in 1946, so close to the events its depicts, seems to add an almost documentary-like quality to this film. Indeed, in the opening credits, the line 'Filmed in the British Zone of Western Germany' suggest that the realistic prison-camp scenes were probably shot in genuine locations. The cast is almost a repertory company of British 1940s actors - but no-one is taking an easy ride. There are fresh and challenging performances, even though the faces are familiar. What struck me is how the film is free of the gung-ho 'smart prisoners, dumb Krauts' type of prison camp film that dominated the genre later on. This film is the product of a people tired of war. At the same time, it retains some of the stiff upper lip feel of many British wartime films, but with the confidence of victory, it does not need to indulge in the 'beastly Hun' elements. Moving without being sentimental. A very 'human' film, only a few steps short of a masterpiece.
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James_Byrne13 August 2005THE CAPTIVE HEART was the first WW2 film to be partly produced in Germany since the war started. The prison camp scenes were reconstructed at Morlag POW camp in Westertimke, Germany, and are very authentic. Karel Hasek (Michael Redgrave), a Czech Officer, has assumed the identity of a dead English Officer, Captain Geoffrey Mitchell, but gets captured and is interned in a German POW camp. He is forced to write to the dead man's wife, disguising his writing by injuring his hand on purpose. Mrs. Mitchell (Rachel Kempson) is pleasantly surprised by the warmth of the letters, as her marriage was on the rocks before the war started. Others in the POW camp include two former building trade partners, Corporal Ted Horsfall (Jack Warner) and Private Dai Evans (Mervyn Johns), who learns that his wife has died during child birth. Lieutenant David Lennox (Gordon Jackson) loses his sight and breaks off his engagement to Elspeth (Margot Fitzsimmons), while Lieutenant Stephen Harley (Derek Bond) is distraught after receiving a letter which states his wife is being unfaithful. Private Matthews (Jimmy Hanley), a former burglar, puts his questionable skills to good use when everyone is handcuffed in a reprisal by the orders of Herr Forster (Karel Stepanek), by immediately releasing all the prisoners. Repatriation arrives at last, and Matthews sacrifices his freedom by allowing Hasek to go in his place, and he visits the home of Celia Mitchell. She is shocked when hearing of her real husband's death, but eventually she falls in love with Hasek. Lennox and Harley are reunited with their loved ones, and Evans meets his daughter for the first time. Working as a technical adviser on THE CAPTIVE HEART was Sam Kydd, who also had a bit part as Private Sam Grant. This was Sam's first film appearance since his own experiences of captivity in a POW camp, which he related vividly in his book "For You The War is Over". If you can manage to get your hands on a copy of this marvellous book you will be rewarded for your efforts. It works as a perfect compliment to THE CAPTIVE HEART, and gives a greater understanding of the life of a POW in WW2. THE CAPTIVE HEART is a mature and realistic war film and is highly recommended. One of the scriptwriters, R.N.V.R.Lieutenant Guy Morgan, had actually been a prisoner at Morlag. The movies original title was "Lover's Meeting", but at the suggestion of future British TV stalwart Jack Warner, the title was changed to THE CAPTIVE HEART.
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bkoganbing8 September 2008In Stalag 17 there's a famous scene and line where the audience who now knows that Peter Graves is an agent is pitching horseshoes and trying to obtain information, as he lands one, an off screen voice says 'that's a ringer.'
The British prisoners, mostly from Dunkirk, who because of capture sat out the war have a ringer among them in The Captive Heart. It's Michael Redgrave, but his is not an espionage mission. He's a Czech who's escaped from a concentration camp and found himself on the battlefield where the defenseless British have surrendered. He takes the identity and uniform of a dead officer and is then 'caught' by the Germans.
To keep up the deception Redgrave writes letters back to his 'wife' in the United Kingdom, played by his real life wife Rachel Kempson. She and her real husband have not gotten along and truth be told his call up for war was greeted with some relief. But Redgrave wrote such poetical stuff she falls for him by correspondence.
Although Redgrave's story is the main plot line, there are others that are nicely acted. Young Gordon Jackson goes blind because of lack of proper care for his wounds and he gives a touching performance. And chief officer of the prisoners, Basil Radford is an inspiring leader among them, trying to keep up morale as best he can.
The Captive Heart is a tandem pulling of the strings on the auricle and ventricle of the viewer. It's a fine wartime romantic drama with equal accent on the war and the romance. It was done just as Michael Redgrave was reaching his heights as one of the United Kingdom's premier players. Try not to miss it if it is broadcast. -
shrbw12 March 2002The prison camp is, in many ways, a metaphor for wartime Britain and its postwar hopes and aspirations. 'All sorts and conditions of men' are herded together in the camp, and despite the underlying tension, the boredom, and the self doubts, they must try and get along with each other. Indeed, it goes far deeper than that - they must try and look out for each other and protect each other.
And so they encourage the blind lad in his efforts to learn brail and come to terms with his blindness. A young 'tearaway' (a pre-war thief)comes to realise that even he has something to contribute. As the others try and think up a way of protecting the identity of a Czech hiding amongst them, he confesses that he knows how to open a safe, and can break into the orderly office and destroy the incriminating evidence.
There are little touches of humanity in terrible situations. The order is issued to manacle the prisoners as a reprisal for some Allied slight (this actually happened), and the elderly German reservist guard tries to indicate to the blind prisoner that he is only 'obeying orders' and doesn't want to do it. The invalid wife of a prisoner is told, back in England, that it is too risky to have her husbands baby, but she sacrifices herself in the hope that he will have a child to come home too. The blind lad tries to put off his girlfriend because he doesn't want to be a burden to her.
Some people find the main plot line a little contrived, but it is fascinating to see two strangers fall in love through a pretence.
And so wartime Britain entered the postwar world with all its hopes and fears. Sadly, with no visible common enemy to unite them, many of these hopes of a common caring humanity were not to be realised. -
sol-3 October 2016Having assumed the identity of a deceased British soldier to avoid being sent to back to a concentration camp, a Czech civilian winds up at a prisoner-of-war camp where he must convince his suspicious inmates that he is not a German mole in this Ealing Studios drama. Often regarded as the first World War II P.O.W. movie, filmed in actual German locations, 'The Captive Heart' has a lot of interest to it. The screenplay is not without its flaws. The protagonist convinces the Brits of his true identity a little too quickly for credibility. There are also far too many subplots in the mix, with only Gordon Jackson as a blinded officer of any interest; the rest of the characters are bland and the episodic structure subtracts from the immediacy of the protagonist's ordeal. Michael Redgrave is superb in the lead role though with everything he has to endure, even allowing his hand to be smashed in a heart-wrenching scene in order to be able to explain the difference in his handwriting when writing letters to the wife of the soldier whose identity he took. In fact, this one of the major narrative strands of the movie with personal identity issues briefly arising as Redgrave finds that he has to fake correspondence "home" to avoid the Germans catching onto his real identity. Add in some luscious, mobile cinematography from Douglas Slocombe (note the gradual zooms-in as Jackson's bandages are removed and the exterior shots that track and pan over the soldiers at attention) and 'The Captive Heart' is a film with a lot to like about it, imperfect as it may be.
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I was thrilled when the movie began. I had no idea it was made by Ealing Studios, but I always felt impressed by their every film. They just seemed to make the most out of even the simplest stories.
This film is about a group of British soldiers spending the war in a prisoner of war camp. "The Captive Heart" stretches from 1940 through the war to the return of the prisoners to their homes.Often, the story is punctuated with flashback scenes--showing the soldiers in mostly happier days with loved ones. In addition to the many little vignettes is an odd (and rather difficult to believe) story involving Michael Redgrave. It seems he's a Czech who's escaped from a concentration camp and is re-captured by the Germans. However, not wanting to be returned to a hellish place like Dachau, he assumes the identity of a dead British soldier--and is sent to the camp along with the real British prisoners. This story and how it all plays out is very interesting. I don't want to say more, as it would spoil the story.
The film has very nice acting and a reasonably engaging story. My only major complaint is that because the film takes place over such a long time period, the film is a bit episodic and shallow at times. But it's still a well made and engaging film from start to finish. -
rmax30482323 October 2009A diverse group of British prisoners of war wind up in a camp in Holland. Among the genuine men is a Czech escapee sought by the Gestapo, Michael Redgrave. He stumbled across the body of a British officer and assumed his identity. The Brits soon twig and are supportive but a Gestapo visitor, Karel Stepanek, keeps wondering where he met "Captain Mitchell" before. It seems only a matter of time.
Escape being impossible, the men have little to do except create tiny gardens and cricket playing fields in order to create a little bit of England in the prison camp. And they wait for the mail. It's their lifeline to the outer world. For most of the men, the news from outside is good but we get to know the stories, in short flashbacks, of those whose messages are troublesome. A man's wife dies in childbirth. Another breaks off his engagement because he doesn't want his girl to know he's blind. Another gets a poison pen letter accusing his wife of infidelity.
The man in the worst spot, of course, is Redgrave the impostor. The affable Gestapo officer remarks that Redgrave has been receiving mail but has written no letters in reply. Redgrave must write to a dead man's wife, but if he does, he can't tell her the truth because the mail is censored. In any case, his handwriting will give his secret away to the woman at the other end. So he does what any normal man would do to save his life -- he has his right hand smashed by a sledge hammer and writes with his left hand to mask his real identity.
The movie is a tribute to the men who kept a stiff upper lip throughout their four-year incarceration and an encomium to the post. The real subject of the movie is the mail. The plot isn't very clear about the point but I believe the delivery of mail was handled through the International Red Cross in Switzerland.
The men boarded up in camp don't really DO very much. There is no combat and only a few shots are fired. (They accidentally kill a guard dog.) There are longueurs, but in the end many of the prisoners are repatriated and sent back to England, including Redgrave, who manages to be included only at the sacrifice of another man's good luck.
The scenes of the men's return are moving and adroitly handled. No one breaks into sobs. Deaths at home are accepted. Men's conflicts are resolved, happily in each case, and their families' too.
It isn't a bad film, especially considering its period -- 1946. The war had just ended and no one was concerned about the Germans' feelings, yet the Germans we see are uniformly good-natured and reasonable. Not that we get to see much of them. And of course there is always the threat of the Gestapo for Redgrave to worry about. And none of the girls back home are glamorous either. Like their men, they look like ordinary people you might bump into at the supermarket.
It's not as involving as, say, "The Best Years of Our Lives." That film dealt exclusively with the post-war adjustment of veterans. The bulk of this film, on the other hand, sticks us in a prison camp with nothing to do but plant leeks -- or maybe asparagus, which take seven years to mature. And there is no exciting central plot, no coordinated smash out, as in "The Great Escape." It's all rather understated, stiff upper lip, even Redgrave's final conciliatory phone call to the dead Mitchell's widow isn't heard against the background of celebratory fireworks on V-E Day.
If it's a bit slow in the middle, it picks up the pace at the end and is a good watch. -
This is an immensely sensitive and very moving film about British POWs rounded up by the Germans at Dunkerque (Dunkirk) in 1940 and marched 220 miles to be interned for the rest of the War in a German POW camp. The film is half about them and half about their lives and loves back home, utilising flashbacks as well as real time events intercut with the men in the camp. The technique is carried out so well that it is highly effective and never seems forced. Much of the film was made in Germany, including the reconstruction of the POW camp. The film aimed for absolute authenticity, and was made with the passion and intensity which was perhaps only possible in the year immediately following the War, when all the issues raised were at their peak of relevance, both to the people making the film and the viewing public. The film is full of wonderful, sensitive and deeply-felt performances. They all really put their hearts into it, and it shows. For instance, rarely can the character actor Mervyn John have embodied such pathos. And the intensity of emotion conveyed by both Rachel Kempson and Jane Barrett is remarkable. Barrett died tragically young at the age of only 46, in 1969, having worked a great deal in television but never obtained the quality roles worthy of her in feature films. Thus she is little known today, but this film shows her qualities admirably. This was one of director Basil Dearden's finest films. He made it immediately after his two episodes of DEAD OF NIGHT (1946), and three years later he directed two episodes of the wonderful classic, TRAIN OF EVENTS (1949, see my review), one of which also dealt with prisoners of war. (The ironical thing is that Dearden made films all through the War and was not in the services, so had no military experience.) It is apparently in this film that Dearden's long professional association with Michael Relph commenced. Relph was both Associate Producer and Art Director on this film. Later he would produce most of Dearden's films. The lead role in this film is played by Michael Redgrave. He had already been married to Rachel Kempson for eleven years when they played in this film together. Redgrave plays a Czech soldier who has escaped from Dachau and is being hunted by the Germans. He speaks perfect English and indeed has been Professor of English at Prague University. He comes across the dead body of Captain Geoffrey Mitchell, a British officer, and takes his identity and uniform, is captured by the Germans and sent to the POW camp as an Englishman. The real Mitchell had been estranged from his wife (played by Rachel Kempson). Redgrave is forced to engage in correspondence with his 'wife' in order to convince the Germans that he is not an impostor. He smashes his right hand so that he is forced to write with his left, as a way of excusing the change of hand-writing to his 'wife'. They then exchange increasingly passionate letters to one another over the years, leading to an awkward situation when the War finally nears its end and Redgrave is 'repatriated' to England as Captain Mitchell. There are wonderful character parts for Gordon Jackson, Jack Warner, Gladys Henson, and others. Derek Bond is excellent as a sensitive concert pianist, Lieutenant Harley. The following year he was to make a big hit as Nicholas Nickleby in the film of that (1947). He never achieved lasting star status, and died as recently as 2006 after appearing in 67 titles. This film, done with such passion and integrity, is a classic of the time, and makes compulsive viewing today considering what it conveys of historical importance, of the manners, situations, and modes of feeling of that period.
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alexanderdavies-9938227 March 2018"The Captive Heart" is a slightly lesser known War film from this period. It focuses on a group of Allied soldiers who become prisoners of war and sent to a concentration camp. There, we witness the various trials and tribulations of the main characters as they struggle to sustain their existence in the midst of hopelessness and despair. However, being friends as well as comrades serves to help them survive many a challenge during their time as prisoners. The emphasis isn't so much on action but more on character and drama. These are the film's chief strengths. It is a harsh War film and with no sentimentality included in the screenplay. Even though Michael Redgrave is billed first, he doesn't appear for quite a while but he's worth waiting for as he gives the best performance. He plays a man who steals the identity of a dead soldier and finishes up at the same concentration camp as the other characters. The supporting cast is a fine one. Gordon Jackson, Jimmy Hanley, Basil Radford and others. They are solid. The plot tends to be a bit vague at times and the running time is a bit long. A pretty good yarn in general.
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clanciai16 February 2018This is a deeply human and almost documentary account of the life of prisoners after Dunkirk who are not released until towards the end of the war, Michael Redgrave as the leading actor being far from alone among suffering fellow soldiers, as there is a number of tales told of dire destiny in this concentration camp of arduous fates. Redgrave is of course the most interesting case, a Czech escaped from the Germans and sought by Gestapo, hiding as an Englishman with a fake identity with suspiciously good knowledge of German, as his father was a diplomat in both London and Berlin. There is also Gordon Jackson with the loss of his sight and his despair about having to give up his betrothed, there is the family man whose wife is having a baby in his absence with that whole family story, there is the major (Basil Radford) struggling with the challenges of his responsibility, there are the sore trials used by the Germans make the camp existence more difficult than necessary for the prisoners, who nevertheless manage to break loose into comedy when an occasion arrives. It's heartrendingly human all the way, and the great love story developing in the ruins with inevitably critical consequences makes this film a definite and almost obligatory classic.
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BOUF29 May 2012BEWARE! A SPOILER re the ENDING. A Czech, escaping from the Nazis, Michael Redgrave, (the nominal star and lead character), assumes the identity of a dead British officer to evade punishment. It's a perfect part for Redgrave, who must be one of the most diffident performers in the history of the movies. What does he actually want or feel? And he's not fascinatingly enigmatic, he's irritating. Redgrave's character is distant, unhappy with who he is, even unhappy with who he might be - at the most, 20% comfortable in his own skin. (Assuming someone else's identity seems to be what an actor like Redgrave must do, so he can live in an agony of semi-persona.) Half way through this curious, but interesting film, the Redgrave character, the Czech, decides to take up a correspondence with the wife of the British officer whose identity he's assumed. Then he'll have something to live for, someone to communicate with. After all, all the 'normal' chaps have a girl to write to. He doesn't seem to consider how much emotional harm he might do the wife, who believes she is corresponding with a formerly cold husband, who has suddenly found a warmth in his poetic descriptions of everyday life in the camp. Her descriptions of life in their little English village are read out to the chaps in the camp, and at last Mr Diffident seems to belong to something, even if it is all a lie. Meanwhile, there are various other love affairs, which have been interrupted by the war; the male halves of these affairs are in the camp; all the affairs are on rocky ground. All are swiftly, abruptly and unconvincingly resolved towards the end of the film, because they don't matter nearly as much as the film's loving commitment to the camaraderie of the camp (there's even a nostalgic shot of the abandoned camp, after the prisoners have all been repatriated as though the film yearns to be back there, rather than with these rather contrived, post-camp love matches). The most unconvincingly resolved love 'affair' is that between the Redgrave character and his ersatz wife. She's shocked that the hubby she thought had transformed himself into a poet, turns out to be a Czech impostor, and sends Redgrave - who now wants to belong to her - packing. But something about his sincere diffidence changes her mind and she takes him on. The End. A shame because it's a very strong dramatic idea, which is unsatisfactorily resolved The reason, I assume, for the perfunctory way with which all the 'love stories' are treated is either the film's running time, or that the film is really a love story about chaps, carrying on regardless of their aching hearts. The characters and scenes in the camp are well drawn; as a document of their camaraderie and coping capabilities, it's quite moving, but the love stories need a lot more work.
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Sorsimus21 October 2000When I started watching this rarely seen film I didn't expect much. It received mild reviews in a television listings magazine and it was on during early weekday afternoon on C4. However, it turned out to be a remarkably touching film and a real tear jerker! It tells a story of a bunch of British soldiers at a prison camp in Germany and the best part is, that there is no token American! The story is told by mixing skillfully pre- war flashbacks, everyday camp life and home front events. Each part adds to the whole and keeps you glued to your seat until the end. The film crew shot this in 1946 at a real prison camp so the art direction is realist throughout.
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Leofwine_draca16 April 2018THE CAPTIVE HEART is one of the earlier movies from Ealing Studios, made before they were known for their genteel, witty comedies. It's a standard WW2 prisoner of war flick, with a greater depth of characterisation than most. At times it gets into romantic and tragic territory, recalling the likes of BRIEF ENCOUNTER, but it also includes some genre tropes and ideas which add excitement. As with many British war films of this era, most of the fun comes from seeing an ensemble cast doing their bit, from the big names like Michael Redgrave and Mervyn Johns right through to the smaller parts from the youthful Gordon Jackson and Sam Kydd.
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jandesimpson3 March 2015Having read a lukewarm review of "The Captive Heart" in Time Out (my cinema bible) and thinking, "They're bound to trash this one," I leaped to the IMDb reviews ready to play my "champion of the turkey" role. What a pleasurable surprise to find it not needed, that I am indeed at one with sympathetic users and critics alike in admiration for this rather special offering from the Ealing archive. Whereas the comedies from the West London studios are still admired with affection, their more serious fare tends to be overlooked. "The Captive Heart" is something of a forgotten treasure, a tribute in the wake of victory, to our gallant servicemen who spent much of the second world war as prisoners in German camps. It's another team piece in the mode of Carol Reed's better known "The Way Ahead" which takes a cross section of class types and closely observes their behaviour as they share an enforced coming together. It's all very stereotypical but if treated with sincerity, as in both films, a measure of character cliché can be forgiven. If the level of acting is fairly mediocre, particularly some of the women with those period prissy upper class accents, one part, that of Michael Redgrave as a Czech who has assumed the role of an English soldier killed in battle to escape being identified by the Germans, stands out for its quality. Where the film really scores is in its reminder of a time when people were really nice to one another particularly when brought together in adversity. Everyone mucks in to help, from comforting the young soldier when first confronted with the permanence of his lack of sight to the initially unsympathetic character who gives up his chance of repatriation to aid one who needs it more, welcome reminders of an age when it was generally normal rather than exceptional to emerge from the cinema feeling good.
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adamscastlevania224 February 2015(53%) A very simplistic prisoner of war drama from Ealing studios about a Czech man who changes his identity to that of a British captured soldier to avoid being killed. This looks at the life of both the prisoners and their family back home giving a decent incite into the inner workings of wartime for the vast majority of normal people. The performances are largely standard stuff, with some touches of film noir to the again pretty standard direction. While the plot is predicable with very little in terms of surprises, but the fact that this was released only a few years after the war itself, and as everyone back then who watched this had actually lived through the misery of that page in time, so the makers didn't really attempt to over-aggrandise the events that directors now might feel more inclined. Overall this is so-so matinée stuff that I'd only recommend to big war movie buffs.
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alanpriest-5391623 March 2019For me, this is one of the very best WW2 films ever made. Several reasons account for that judgment, including the fact that it was made so soon after the end of the War and it was partly shot in Germany. In this film there is none of the "at ease" rubbish seen later in Stalag 17, it is told as it really was with honesty and heroism both in the Camp and back in Blighty. The British cast and those behind the cameras do a superb job throughout and the story remains as absorbing today as it was when first told in 1946. Finally, I do have to confess that my late Father was a member of the accredited 51st Highland Division and does appear on-screen for a few seconds during an a German announcement to the prisoners, so it also keeps him alive to me and my family.
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kijii25 November 2016The movie is a broad photo montage of several stories--from one setting--of British soldiers who were captured early in WWII (1941) and placed in a German POW camp. Is depicts what happens to them and their loved ones, back home, as they are separated by time and space.
How do the relationships change?
How do they remain the same?
What holds them together or drives them apart?
Four years can be like a lifetime to those it affects.
This is no Stalag 17 or Hogan's Heroes-type movie. I found the movie to be very engaging and enjoyable, even as half of a long-range relationship undergoes very big changes. Changes can range anywhere from physical disability, to "Dear John" letters, to birth and/or death. The relationship often—usually—depend on letters and photos back and forth. -
writers_reign25 November 2007The old saying if you're going to steal, steal from the best rings true in this case which is essentially In Which We Serve in khaki; both feature men in confined spaces reminiscing about their lives in Civvy Street with the main difference being that instead of a lifeboat we have a prison camp where a similar cross-section of Upper, Middle and Working Classes learn to rub along more or less amicably. For good measure they even ripped off the celebrated scene from Casablanca where the German singing is drowned out by 1) the Marseillaise and 2) Roll Out The Barrel, but the most blatant rip-off from the Coward masterpiece is in the two married couples, respectively Bernand Miles/ Joyce Carey/ John Mills/Kay Walsh and Jack Warner/Gladys Henson/Mervyn Johns/Rachel Thomas, who were friends before the war so much so that the two wives move in together for the duration; in each film one wife is killed and the news is broken to the widower via a letter from home to the other man so here Jack Warner gets to tell Mervyn Johns that Rachel Thomas is dead. This to one side The Captive Heart remains a compelling film because at its heart (sorry about that) is the wonderfully low-key love story between Michael Redgrave and his real-life wife Rachel Kempson of which 95 per cent is played out via under-stated letters which only mention love between the lines. The support is largely sound and trivia buffs will be interested to note that two years earlier (1944) Meriel Forbes had married Ralph Richardson so that the film boasted the real-life wives of two future theatrical knights. One to buy on DVD.
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morrison-dylan-fan5 February 2022Finding The Long Arm (1956-also reviewed) to be a thrilling Film Noir from Ealing Studios, I was happily pleased to spot on Talking Pictures free online catch-up service a War movie that I was not aware of from Ealing, leading to me getting ready to see Ealing at war.
View on the film:
A POW during the war in the German prison camp of Marlag und Milag Nord (where parts of the movie were filmed in) co-writer Guy Morgan (with regular Ealing script writer Angus MacPhail joined here by Patrick Kirwan) makes his real life experience a prominent element of this beautiful screenplay, with a real level of care given to drawing each of the individual POWs, (from the anxious about having his cover uncovered Hasek, to the fatherly bond Evans brings to settling disputes- both played with a quiet thoughtfulness by Michael Redgrave and Mervyn Johns)
At the same time, the writers continue to expand the ensemble plot thread of the POWs trying to keep their morals strong, as letters from the Red Cross give them the only fleeting ideas over what is happening on the battlefield.
The first POW WWII film to be made, directing auteur Basil Dearden & his regular cinematographer of this period Douglas Slocombe hold back from any grand, flashy escape sequences, instead going for more grounded, (something Dearden would focus on later with his "Social Issues" works) refine wide shots of the prison camp.
Contrasting prison life, Dearden webs silky dissolves and fade-outs over the letter writing between Hasek and Celia, until they break on the final stunning scene, where the captive heart shatters. -
davidjanuzbrown6 March 2016I am surprised more people do not like this movie. First off it is a rare opportunity to see Michael Redgrave and Rachael Kempson together.Spoilers Ahead: The story is about a Czech Captain named Hasek ( Redgrave) who steals the ID of a dead British Officer named Mitchell and gets captured and is thrown into a German POW Camp. What I like is how he and the dead officers wife Celia ( Kempson) fall in love via letters. As it turned out she was better off with Hazel then Mitchell because Mitchell abandoned the family. The real hero of the movie was Private Matthews who volunteers to allow Hasek to take his place in being repatriated back to Britian. When the POW head Major Darlymple asks why? He explains that he is a burglar and has nothing to go back to. He even offers to break into the Kommandant's office and switch Mitchell's name with his. The Major said "That is rather sporting of you, and we have a place for someone of your talents." So by putting someone else ahead of himself ( NOT the usual act of a criminal Matthews ( like Hasek) will have a better life then he ever had before. 9/10 stars
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jarrodmcdonald-111 October 2022THE CAPTIVE HEART is a film that turns its viewers into a captive audience. Along with CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE, I consider it one of the finest British war films to depict the harrowing nature of life inside a Nazi concentration camp. The story merely starts in such a place, because as incredible events unfold, it only gets more harrowing...more dangerous for the main character.
Michael Redgrave is a Czech captain who escapes from Dachau and assumes the identity of a dead British officer. However, while he's managed to avoid death, he is still not very lucky. Under his new guise, he is captured along with British soldiers and taken to a new camp for prisoners of war.
The producers shot these particular scenes on location at Marlag, a POW site in Germany. Filming occurred only a short time after the war had ended...when such structures were still intact...so considerable realism is added to the story.
Redgrave gives a sharp performance. He skillfully navigates the trickier aspects of the plot. After all, he's a British actor playing a Czech posing as a Brit-- and he has to speak convincing German at key moments. In addition to the different national identities and dialects required for the role, he has to maneuver a character who is heroic and deceptive at the same time...someone that does whatever is necessary to survive.
Part of surviving involves writing love letters to the estranged wife (Rachel Kempson) of the man he's impersonating. It's a hoax of romantic proportions, and he unwittingly wins the wife back through this correspondence. Naturally, she does not yet know her husband is dead or that a foreign Cyrano is behind the messages she keeps receiving by mail. Instead she continues to read and savor each word.
Screenwriters Angus MacPhail and Guy Morgan have adapted a story by Patrick Kirwan that's based on the true story of two people. Mr. Redgrave's character is standing in for a Czech officer named Josef Bryks, who had joined the RAF Reserve and did end up having a relationship with the widow of a pilot who served in the RAF. The couple married after the war; however, this film's narrative stops short of wedded bliss.
Redgrave is busted out of the POW camp, and he makes his way to England. This sets the stage for the denouement where he finally meets the lady he's been playing post office with all this time. He confesses the ruse and lets her know why he had to take her late husband's identity. She seems to understand, though she is emotionally conflicted by the news. After learning about her husband's death, she rereads the letters she had received during the war from this imposter. She decides he is the man she now loves!
Off camera, Rachel Kempson and Michael Redgrave had an even more unusual relationship. They though they would remain married, Redgrave struggled with his sexuality and was often unfaithful-- something Kempson seemed to tolerate. A short time after THE CAPTIVE HEART hit screens, they took their children to America and made films in Hollywood for awhile. But none of those pictures were half as good as THE CAPTIVE HEART. -
mark.waltz8 November 2023Coming out the same year as that Academy Award wining best film, this British drama shows what could have happened before husband and wife Frederic March and Myrna Loy were reunited in the opening. This shows reasons why war is not often over when it's over, the nightmares caused by the situation that captain Michael Redgrave goes through, first in a concentration camp and later in a prisoner of war camp. As an officer, he's allowed to correspond with his wife, Rachel Kempson, but the audience is aware that he is not the man he claims to be but an escaped Czech prisoner from Dachau successfully passing himself off as British.
Like "The Best Years of Our Lives", this dealt with more than just the top billed leads, and there's an impressive roster of popular British actors of the time dramatizing their issues. Thd Germans running the prison camp are presented with fairness, treating the P. O. W.'s according to the laws of the updated 1929 Geneva convention. That doesn't stop discord and attempted escape, and it's intriguing to see how Redgrave gets away with his deception. It's also a love story with Redgrave falling in love with Kempson whom he's never met since she's unaware that her husband is actually dead. Some viewers might find this to be unbelievable and corny, but I was quite touched by it.