Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: Pinewood Studios

Carve Her Name with Pride is a 1958 British war drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Virginia McKenna and Paul Scofield. It was written by Vernon Harris and Gilbert based on the 1956 book of the same title by R. J. Minney.

Production

The film was based on a biography about Szabo written by R.J. Minney. Lewis Gilbert had previously made a film of a Minney novel, Time Gentlemen, Please! and the two men had remained friends; Minney told Gilbert the story of the book at dinner, and the director read proofs of Minney's novel. He felt it would make a "wonderful movie" and purchased the film rights.

Rank had Virigina McKenna under contract and insisted Gilbert use her in the lead. Gilbert felt McKenna "really wasn't the right type for it... Ideally, it should have been someone like Diana Dors, who was much rougher, because Violet was a Cockney who had lived in Brixton, a very poor area of London." However Gilbert ultimately felt McKenna "was wonderful in the film."

Filming started 6 July 1957 and took place in Pinewood and on location in France over 16 weeks.

The movie used Odette Hallowes as an adviser. Gilbert said this was "very useful, especially as Odette, having already had a film made about her life, understood a bit about film-making." McKenna said Odette "was living proof of a woman who had suffered enormously — torture, solitary confinement, things which are probably almost impossible for us to imagine coping with.

McKenna prepared for the role by learning judo and how to shoot a Sten gun and parachute jumping. "I did quite a lot of research," she said. "It’s one of the films I’m proudest of — not because of what I did, but because it told the story of this extraordinary person who represents so many others whose stories have not been told.

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