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The Lady with a Lamp

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This article is about the 1951 film. For the painting, see Miss Nightingale at Scutari, 1854. For the person so nicknamed, see Florence Nightingale.

The Lady with a Lamp
Australian daybill poster
Directed byHerbert Wilcox
Written byWarren Chetham Strode
Based onThe Lady with a Lamp by Reginald Berkeley
Produced byHerbert Wilcox
StarringAnna Neagle
Michael Wilding
Felix Aylmer
CinematographyMax Greene
Edited byBill Lewthwaite
Music byAnthony Collins
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Distributed byBritish Lion Films
Release date
  • 22 October 1951 (1951-10-22) (London)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£151,091 (UK)[1]

The Lady with a Lamp is a 1951 British historical drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding and Felix Aylmer.[2][3] It was written by Warren Chetham Strode based on the 1929 play The Lady with a Lamp by Reginald Berkeley. The film depicts the life of Florence Nightingale and her work with wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War.

Plot

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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.[4]

Main cast

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Production

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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.

Reception

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Box office

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The film was popular at the British box office.[5] It was judged by Kinematograph Weekly as a "notable performer" at British cinemas in 1951.[6]

Critical reception

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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."[7]

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."[8]

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."[9]

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."[10]

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."[11]

References

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  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". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  3. ^ "BFI | Film & TV Database | The LADY WITH THE LAMP (1951)". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. 16 April 2009. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  4. ^ "The Lady with a Lamp (1951) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast". AllMovie. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  5. ^ Thumim, Janet. "The popular cash and culture in the postwar British cinema industry". Screen. Vol. 32, no. 3. p. 258.
  6. ^ "These were the winners in 1951". Kinematograph Weekly. 20 December 1951. p. 9-10.
  7. ^ "The Lady with a Lamp". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 18 (204): 341. 1 January 1951. ProQuest 1305814259.
  8. ^ "The Lady With A Lamp Review". Movies.tvguide.com. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  9. ^ "Lady with a Lamp, The (1951) - Overview". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  10. ^ "The Lady with the Lamp". Variety. 31 December 1950. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  11. ^ Harper, Sue; Porter, Vincent (2003). British cinema of the 1950s : the decline of deference. Oxford University Press. p. 156.
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