The Captive Heart
Directed by Basil Dearden
Written by Angus McPhail and Guy Morgan from an original story by Patrick Kirwan
1946/UK
Ealing Studios
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Pvt. Mathews: [discussing his escape plans with Horsfall and Evans] Why, all I have to do is stow away in one of those garbage bins or something. Why, it’s as easy as kiss your… [sees Mitchell approach][/box]
This enjoyable British POW story lost me in the last few minutes. It is reportedly the first POW film to be made after the war.
The story begins in England as various soldiers prepare to say goodbye to their families. A couple of these are leaving in the midst of complications. One is in the midst of a love triangle he appears to be winning. The family of another, Geoffrey Mitchell, is only too glad to be rid of its mostly absent head of household.
Karel Hasek (Michael Redgrave), a Czech, has escaped from Dachau and made his way to France. He finds himself in a foxhole on a battlefield with a surrounded band of British soldiers. He grabs the identification papers and uniform of Geoffrey Mitchell who lies dead there. Then he and the British are taken as POWs by the Germans. Hasek was brought up in London and speaks fluent English and German. His German causes his comrades to be deeply suspicious.
Hasek comes clean in time and settles into the routine of prison life with the other men. Life in the prison camp seems more boring and lonely than acutely unpleasant. After months of waiting, the prisoners receive letters and parcels via the Red Cross. Life is going on at home even while the men are in limbo. The soldier in the love triangle is informed his lover is now having an affair with a the other man and a private’s wife is pregnant at an advanced age.
Despite the fact that their marriage is essentially over, Geoffrey’s wife Celia (Rachel Kempson) has written to him out of pity. Hasek, who is being eyed with considerable suspicion by a Gestapo officer, feels compelled to write back to preserve his cover. As the months turn into years, the correspondents fall in love. In an act of real bravery, the other men manage to have Hasek included in the repatriation of some of them in 1944. The story then turns to melodrama as the soldiers reunite with their loved ones and Geoffrey must inform Celia that her husband is dead. With Basil Radford and Gordon Jackson as prisoners.
I always love Michael Redgrave and this film was no exception. This may have been the first time I had seen his wife Rachel Kempson. She was OK and certainly beautiful. The film does well as long as it stays in the camp. It is one of those understated day-in-the-life British war stories that I enjoy so much, with many vignettes of grace under pressure. I thought the whole thing fell apart after the release of the men. The director, who had kept things real so well up to then, let the whole thing slide right over the top in the climactic scenes. A shame really.
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