The Feminine Touch | |
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![]() UK quad format cinema poster | |
Directed by | Pat Jackson |
Screenplay by | W. P. Lipscomb (uncredited) Richard Mason (uncredited) |
Based on | A Lamp Is Heavy 1950 novel by Sheila Mackay Russell |
Produced by | Michael Balcon associate Jack Rix |
Starring | George Baker Belinda Lee Delphi Lawrence |
Cinematography | Paul Beeson |
Edited by | Peter Bezencenet |
Music by | Clifton Parker |
Production company | |
Distributed by | J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors |
Release date |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
The Feminine Touch is a 1956 colour British drama film directed by Pat Jackson and starring George Baker, Belinda Lee and Delphi Lawrence. The film is based on the bestselling novel A Lamp Is Heavy by Canadian former nurse Sheila Mackay Russell, [1] and consequently it was released as A Lamp Is Heavy in Canada, while it was given the title The Gentle Touch in the United States, when it was released there in December 1957. [2]
The film follows five very different student nurses during their first year of training at an NHS hospital in London called St. Augustine's Hospital (filmed at Guy's Hospital), where they live in a dormitory. However, of the five, the main focus is Susan.
Susan (Belinda Lee) is reliable and sensible; Pat (Delphi Lawrence) is flighty and open; Maureen (Adrienne Corri) is Irish and loud; Ann (Henryetta Edwards) is a former public school girl; and Liz (Barbara Archer) comes from a working class background. As they get to know each other, they bond in spite of their differences.
Susan falls in love with Dr Jim Alcott. She is tempted to leave nursing to go with Jim to Canada but decides not to go after helping a patient who tried to commit suicide. However, after a talk with Matron, she decides to join Jim in Canada.
Mandy Miller plays a young patient with a heart condition, convinced that she is going to die.
When it is revealed that one of the group stayed out all night to be with one of the doctors she faces instant dismissal until it is revealed that she has been married for a month. Although also against the rules the nurses philosophise with the matron that this is more admirable than the nurses sneaking out to have affairs: which is tolerated by the system.
The film was based on a 1950 book, The Lamp is Heavy by Sheila Russell. Russell was from Canada, and worked as a nurse in Edmonton. She married a doctor in 1947. The novel was published in the Commonwealth in 1954. [3] It sold 75,000 copies over five years. [4] Russell later wrote another novel called The Living Earth (1954). [5]
Michael Balcon of Ealing wanted to make a hospital film but Sir John Davis of Rank was reluctant; eventually Balcon managed to get approval for this movie. [6]
It was the first Ealing movie directed by Pat Jackson, who had previously made an earlier film about nursing, White Corridors (1951). It was one of the last pair of films made at Ealing Studios, which had been sold to the BBC, and one of the last Ealing movies under the nine-year relationship between Rank and Ealing. (Ealing would move to MGM studios, make several more movies, then be wound up.) [7] [8] [9]
It was an early star role for Belinda Lee. [10] It was one of several "sensible girl" parts she played for Rank. [11] Dorothy Alison was an Australian actor. [12]
Film rights were bought by Rank in early 1955. Filming began in late June 1955 at Pinewood Studios. [13] There was location work at Guy's Hospital. "I'm not surprised that there is a change in title", said Russell. "After all, in England the 'lamp' is still pretty heavy for nurses." [14]
Variety called it "worthwhile, and as a piece of romantic entertainment, it is more than adequate. Pic has valuable exploitation angles which should help returns in the domestic market... yarn has few comedy touches as well as strong dramatic angles... Cast is competent .without being standout. Miss Lee, a handsome blonde, is rapidly improving as an actress." [15]
The Monthly Film Bulletin said "this latest example of nurse recruitment by film adds little to what has been said by previous productions of this kind." [16]
The Observer said it was "not very good drama, I'm afraid." [17]
The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the sequence include Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Whisky Galore! (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955). Hue and Cry (1947) is generally considered to be the earliest of the cycle, and Barnacle Bill (1957) the last, although some sources list Davy (1958) as the final Ealing comedy.
Sir Michael Elias Balcon was an English film producer known for his leadership of Ealing Studios in West London from 1938 to 1955. Under his direction, the studio became one of the most important British film studios of the day. In an industry short of Hollywood-style moguls, Balcon emerged as a key figure, and an obdurately British one too, in his benevolent, somewhat headmasterly approach to the running of a creative organization. He is known for his leadership, and his guidance of young Alfred Hitchcock.
Delphi Lawrence was an English actress. She was educated at Halidon House School in Slough, Berkshire, whilst living in Colnbrook.
Belinda Lee was an English actress.
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Doctor in Clover is a British comedy film released in 1966, starring Leslie Phillips. The film is based on the novel of the same title by Richard Gordon. It is the sixth of the seven films in the Doctor series.
Who Done It? is a 1956 British slapstick black and white comedy crime film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Benny Hill, Belinda Lee, David Kossoff, Garry Marsh, and George Margo. One of the last Ealing comedies, it was Benny Hill's film debut.
The Man in the Sky is a 1957 thriller drama film starring Jack Hawkins and produced by Ealing Films, Michael Balcon's new company, set up after Rank had sold Ealing Studios in Ealing Green, West London, to the BBC in 1955. Balcon, who had run the company on behalf of Rank since 1944, left Rank in 1956 and set up the new company, striking a distribution and production deal with MGM. This was the first Ealing production to be made at MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, North London.
Dangerous Exile is a 1957 British historical drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Louis Jourdan, Belinda Lee, Anne Heywood and Richard O'Sullivan. It concerns the fate of Louis XVII, who died in 1795 as a boy, yet was popularly believed to have escaped from his French revolutionary captors.
Eyewitness is a 1956 British thriller film directed by Muriel Box and starring Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig, Nigel Stock and Richard Wattis. It was made by the Rank Organisation.
The Siege of Pinchgut is a 1959 British thriller filmed on location in Sydney, Australia, and directed by Harry Watt. It was the last film produced by Ealing Studios, and was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival where it was nominated for the Golden Bear Award.
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The Feminine Touch may refer to:
Christense Sorensen (1885–1958) was an Australian hospital matron and army nurse. She served during the First World War and later became a civilian matron. She held positions in the Australian Army Nursing Service, Brisbane General Hospital, and Rosemount Repatriation Hospital. Upon her retirement she had treated more than a million patients.
Henryetta Edwards was a British actress on the London stage, and in films and television, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s.