No Time for Tears | |
---|---|
Directed by | Cyril Frankel |
Written by | Anne Burnaby Frederic Gotfurt |
Based on | an original story by Anne Burnaby |
Produced by | W.A. Whittaker |
Starring | Anna Neagle George Baker Sylvia Syms Anthony Quayle |
Cinematography | Gilbert Taylor |
Edited by | Gordon Pilkington |
Music by | Francis Chagrin |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Associated British-Pathé (UK) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
No Time for Tears is a 1957 British drama film directed by Cyril Frankel in CinemaScope and Eastman Color and starring Anna Neagle, George Baker, Sylvia Syms and Anthony Quayle. [1] The staff at a children's hospital struggle with their workload. [2]
The interwoven dramas of staff and patients in Mayfield Children's Hospital, where the doctors and nurses are in the business of restoring children's lives. One small child risks losing his sight, while twin boys fool the doctors over which one has appendicitis. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, new nurse Margaret Collier suffers pangs of unrequited love for houseman Dr. Nigel Barnes.
Herbert Wilcox tried to get the rights to the story but they were obtained by Associated British. That company offered a lead role to Wilcox's wife Anna Neagle. It was the first film she appeared in that was not directed by Wilcox for twenty years. [3]
According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was "in the money" at the British box office in 1957. [4]
Monthly Film Bulletin said "No Time for Tears neglects none of the characteristic incidents of the hospital picture: the doctor-nurse affair, the touch-and-go operation, a miraculous recovery, supervision by an all-seeing matron, and medical-student humour are all exploited. But the perfunctory way in which the film assembles its material, its shameless reliance on easy emotionalism and disjointed narrative style, make this little more than a hospital soap opera. It is by no means incompetently made, and within its cosy conventions adequately played; its picture of hospital life, though, conveys a sense less of devotion and dedication than of sickly sweetness." [5]
The Observer called it "sentimental but not often silly ... it's overall tone is kind, the atmosphere cheerful." [6]
The Evening Sentinel said "there's just about every clinical cliche on the chart." [7]
Variety called it "a routine comedy-weepie". [8]
Sky Movies gave the film two out of five stars, and wrote, "this is standard medical soap fare and could be mistaken for a bumper edition of Casualty ": [9] while TV Guide rated the film three out of four stars, and wrote, "Though the situations are clearly out of the movie medical bag, the ensemble manages to rise above clichés and stereotypes. Neagle carries the film as the head nurse, with good support from Syms as the new nurse on her staff". [10]
Filmink said it "needed less subplots and more soap, but it’s not bad and Syms’ character sings and dances in a random dance number at the end." [11]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Totally predicatable British tearjerker with a happy ending." [12]
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Hospital soap opera largely steers clear of stickiness into warmth." [13]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "What else could you call a film whose sole intention is to have you blubbing your eyes out from the off? Anna Neagle stars in this mawkish account of life in a children's hospital. If the triumphs and tragedies of the kiddies don't have you reaching for tissues, then the torrid love life of nurse Sylvia Syms certainly will. The members of the cast work minor miracles despite the string of clichés." [14]
Dame Florence Marjorie Wilcox, known professionally as Anna Neagle, was an English stage and film actress, singer, and dancer.
Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding was an English stage, television, and film actor. He is best known for a series of films he made with Anna Neagle; he also made two films with Alfred Hitchcock, Under Capricorn (1949) and Stage Fright (1950); and he guest starred on Hitchcock's TV show in 1963. He was married four times, including to Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he had two sons.
Ice Cold in Alex is a 1958 British war film set during the Western Desert campaign of World War II based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Landon. Directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring John Mills, the film was a prizewinner at the 8th Berlin International Film Festival. Under the title Desert Attack, a shortened, 79-minute version of the film was released in the United States in 1961. Film critic Craig Butler later referred to the shortened versions as nonsensical.
Sylvia May Laura Syms was an English stage and screen actress. Her best-known film roles include My Teenage Daughter (1956), Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957), for which she was nominated for a BAFTA Award, Ice Cold in Alex (1958), No Trees in the Street (1959), Victim (1961), and The Tamarind Seed (1974).
Woman in a Dressing Gown is a 1957 British drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms, and Carole Lesley.
Herbert Sydney Wilcox CBE was a British film producer and director.
Conspiracy of Hearts is a 1960 British Second World War film, directed by Ralph Thomas, about nuns in Italy smuggling Jewish children out of an internment camp near their convent to save them from The Holocaust. It stars Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms, Yvonne Mitchell and Ronald Lewis, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting International Understanding at the 18th Golden Globe Awards in 1961.
The Birthday Present is a 1957 British drama film directed by Pat Jackson. The film also featured Thorley Walters and Ian Bannen in small roles.
These Dangerous Years is a 1957 British drama musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring George Baker, Frankie Vaughan, Carole Lesley, Thora Hird, Kenneth Cope, David Lodge and John Le Mesurier.
The Man Who Wouldn't Talk is a 1958 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox. It starred Anna Neagle, Anthony Quayle, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dora Bryan, John Le Mesurier and Lloyd Lamble.
The Moonraker is a British swashbuckler film made in 1957 and released in 1958 and set in the English Civil War. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred George Baker, Sylvia Syms, Marius Goring, Gary Raymond, Peter Arne, John Le Mesurier and Patrick Troughton. It is based on the 1952 play of the same title by Arthur Watkyn. It was shot at Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director Robert Jones.
East of Sudan is a 1964 British adventure film directed by Nathan Juran and featuring Anthony Quayle, Sylvia Syms and Derek Fowlds.
Piccadilly Incident is a 1946 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Coral Browne, Edward Rigby and Leslie Dwyer.
No Trees in the Street is a 1959 British crime thriller directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Sylvia Syms, Herbert Lom and Melvyn Hayes. It was written by Ted Willis, from his 1948 stage play of the same name.
King's Rhapsody is a 1955 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Errol Flynn and Patrice Wymore. Wymore was Errol Flynn's wife at the time of filming. It was based on the successful stage musical King's Rhapsody by Ivor Novello.
Tread Softly Stranger is a 1958 British crime drama directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in an industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time. The screenplay was adapted from the stage play Blind Alley (1953) by Jack Popplewell.
Nurse Edith Cavell is a 1939 American film directed by British director Herbert Wilcox about Edith Cavell. The film was nominated at the 1939 Oscars for Best Original Score.
The Feminine Touch is a 1956 colour British drama film directed by Pat Jackson and starring George Baker, Belinda Lee and Delphi Lawrence. In 1957 it was released as A Lamp Is Heavy in Canada, and The Gentle Touch in the United States.
My Teenage Daughter, later Teenage Bad Girl, is a 1956 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Sylvia Syms and Norman Wooland. The screenplay concerns a mother who tries to deal with her teenage daughter's descent into delinquency. It was intended as a British response to Rebel Without a Cause. It was the last commercially successful film made by Wilcox.
Lilacs in the Spring is a 1954 British musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Errol Flynn and David Farrar. The film was made at Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director William C. Andrews. Shot in Trucolor it was distributed in Britain by Republic Pictures. It was the first of two films Neagle and Flynn made together, the other being King's Rhapsody. It was released in the United States as Let's Make Up.