Carve Her Name With Pride

Lewis Gilbert's Carve Her Name With Pride (1958) is an excellent, atypical spy film. It avoids most of the expected genre cliches, its heroism fairly modest and believable; it's a nice alternative to flicks like Where Eagles Dare, where heroics are achieved through cartoonish body counts. In telling the true story of Violette Szabo, the film emphasizes the role that ordinary Englishmen - and women - played in the victory over Hitler. And of course, Virginia McKenna's wonderful performance doesn't hurt either.

Violette Szabo (Virginia McKenna), a half-French girl living in 1940 London, marries a handsome French soldier (Alaine Saury) who is quickly shipped off to war. When her husband is killed in North Africa, Violette is approached by the Special Operation to act a liaision with the French Resistance. She undergoes fairly rough training before shipping out, and her first mission in Paris is a success. Torn between love for her daughter (Pauline Challoner) and her growing affection for her superior Tony (Paul Scofield), Violette nonetheless returns to France on an even more hazardous mission just before D-Day.

Carve Her Name With Pride is a nice bit of under-stated, old-fashioned patriotism. Eschewing jingoistic speeches and massive body counts, the movie is quietly celebratory: an ordinary girl like Violette made an extraordinary difference in World War II. Her plight is certainly relatable to anyone from that era: she loses her husband and her daughter's childhood to the war, before she even ships out, and she undergoes harrowing experiences at the hands of the Nazis. Gilbert celebrates Violette without glamorizing her fate, showing a resolute British woman quietly and painfully sacrificing everything for the greater good.

Flag-waving aside, Carve Her Name With Pride is wonderfully down-to-earth. Violette is a very human protagonist; the film avoids an innocent-to-tough gal transformation, as she's pretty strong-willed from the get-go. The romance is worked seamlessly into the plot, and her family melodrama is restrained. Violette's heroism is limited and mostly believable; she helps organize a resistance attack, but her role is teritary and the act is portrayed off-screen. The only bow to genre convention is Violette holding off a platoon of Nazis with a Sten, a broken ankle and a bullet wound, a forgivable bit of dramatic license all things considered. Violette's interrogation and time in a concentration camp are elliptically (but effectively) portrayed, and the movie's grim, understated finale is pitch-perfect.

Virginia McKenna (Born Free) gives a wonderful star turn. She portrays Violette beautifully, emphasizing her human aspects above all else, creating a protagonist we unreservedly root for. She's pretty but not glamorous, tough but feminine, understated yet heroic, making her a well-rounded, believable character. All of her big moments, from her interrogation, are wonderfully underplayed with a mixture of vulnerability and firm conviction. McKenna's final scene, staring down the barrel of a machine gun with a mixture of defiance and fear, is acting at its finest.

The supporting cast is fine. A young Paul Scofield (A Man for All Seasons) does well with an underwritten part. French stars Maurice Ronet, Denise Gray and Alain Saury are fine in small roles; Jack Warner (The Ladykillers), Bill Owen and Billie Whitelaw (Frenzy) give dependable turns. Noel Willman (Doctor Zhivago) gets a larger-than-usual role as a slimy Gestapo man. Attentive viewers can spot Michael Caine in a pre-stardom bit part.

Carve Her Name With Pride is an excellent spy film and remains among the best of its type. Its combination of quiet heroics and down-to-earth drama makes it a must-see.