Agent secret S.Z

Virginia McKenna does a great job of portraying unsung British war heroine Violetta Szabo. Paul Scofield, perhaps the greatest actor of his generation, is equally magnificent as Tony. Lewis Gilbert allows the tale to unfold without much pomp and fanfare but with crisp direction and solid supporting performances, this merely adds to its power. The resilient score is also worth noting. Every time I finish watching this film, I cry, then I want to watch it again.

The recent film Charlotte Gray attempted a similar theme, at ten times the cost (even inflation-adjusted), twice the length, and one-tenth the impact. If you've seen Charlotte Gray, and made it all the way through, see Carve Your Name With Pride. You will adore it.

Pardon me for beginning this way, but is this movie a copied storyline of the earlier film "Odette" (1951)? Both stories seem to run so parallel one can only wonder about it. On second thoughts perhaps not. We ought to realize how many dedicated people with strong convictions made the great sacrifice during the war. Violette Szabo (Virginia McKenna), as an appealing spy, felt duty bound to assist her country and was one of them who left all personal thought behind to do her duty. It's very dramatic and riveting as she faces the many dangers.

Really, Virginia McKenna gave a strong performance, very deserving of an Oscar, I'd say. War isn't glorious by any means. A serious film.

British Director Lewis Gilbert is unknown to most Americans. This is a pity because he has directed a number of "crossover" masterpieces and this true story of wartime heroism is but one of them. The movie reminds me somewhat of The Man Who Never Was, a spy movie which required a woman who had been through a recent tragedy, marvelously played by Gloria Grahame, to use that tragedy to make herself a believable spy.

Although she has excellent support by a young Paul Scofield and a non-too-shabby veteran cast, Virginia McKenna must pull off the central character, Violetta Szabo, in order for the film to succeed. She does so without question,and then some. If this movie does not bring tears to your eyes, no movie will.

Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)

A resolutely respectful and consistent movie, powerful in a quiet way, and serious to the core. These aren't really adjectives for an amazing movie--and it's not amazing. The story is amazing, since it's true, a British woman going undercover in WWII and having to suffer badly at the hands of the Nazis. And the movie depends on the story, rather than the movie, to succeed.

It does, in fact, succeed. It's a moving story well told. It lacks drama, and is sometimes quietly sentimental, which is part of the point, giving a human side to the spy and war business. The leading woman is someone not well known to American audiences, a rather straight forward actress, Virginia McKenna. But you might remember her from "Born Free," a very different kind of role but needing the same sharp seriousness. She's still alive, gladly, and was even in a film in 2010.

The movie here needs drama, frankly. It takes half the film to reach the German conflict in France, and it comes to the real drama, the horrors of being caught, in the last half hour. Which is to say, be prepared for lots of preparation, well done, but preliminary, and purposely undramatic. By that last part is good wartime stuff, with a woman as the main figure in the fighting and the aftermath. The prison scenes are cold and harsh in their own way, and yet I don't quite believe it would have been quite so calmly paced and deliberate, even in the hands of the Germans happily in France.

The story of Mrs Violette Szabo as portrayed by Virginia McKenna is poignantly brought to the screen. The exploits of an ordinary woman who proved to be - "The most fearless of all women SOE operatives" - as described by none other than another famous SOE operative Mrs Odette Churchill who survived the war undergoing almost similar experiences is a must. The film in almost three compartments re-traces the life of Violette from the time she meets her husband on Bastille Day in 1940 and their whirlwind romance, flashes to 1942 when her child is celebrating her 2nd birthday when she receives news of her husbands death at El-Alamein. It then fast forwards six months when she is recruited by the SOE as she had perfect qualifications for the post which included being a crack shot with the rifle (which however is contradicted by SOE records which state that she spoke French with an English accent...). The next part of the film features her training where she excels but sprains her ankle and has to sit out the first assignment by her team. During her convalescence she has to confront her father who feels she is not doing enough for the war effort,brush aside her guilt in abandoning her daughter etc.( Virginia McKenna handles these emotive scenes with remarkable talent) Her first assignment passes off quite well but the undertones of the danger of such attempts by agents are underplayed by the director. Her second assignment just after D-Day puts her a prisoner with the Gestapo after she has valiantly stood upto to a single-handed encounter with a German patrol - the torture she suffers and her ultimate death facing a firing squad at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp is leaves the viewer with no doubts on the methods used by her captors without depicting violence per se. The third part of the film is largely based on reports given by the French Resistance & Nazi records & reports by fellow prisoners of Ravensbruck all poignantly brought to the screen. The finale where we see her 5 year old daughter being received by King George to honour her mother posthumously with the George Cross brings a lump to the throat. Incidentally the episode of her shopping in Paris for her daughter while on assignment is corroborated by others hence not fictionalised for the film. In all a wonderful film that makes one wonder-struck with the exemplary courage of ordinary people who became legends in their time.