Beware of Pity

United Kingdom

1946

102 Min

Black and White

English

Currently 0.0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

|

PROD Maurice Elvey, W.P. Lipscomb

SCR Stefan Zweig, Elizabeth Baron, W.P. Lipscomb

CAST Lilli Palmer, Albert Lieven, Cedric Hardwicke, Gladys Cooper, Linden Travers, Ernest Thesiger, Emrys Jones, Ralph Truman

MUSIC Nicholas Brodszky, Charles Williams

Synopsis

After a chance meeting, Baroness Edith (Lilli Palmer) befriends Lt. Marek (Maurice Elvey), who learns that she was paralyzed in a riding accident years before. Though Edith feels a romance blossoming, Marek doesn’t, but pity prevents him from turning her away. Each day it becomes harder for Marek to admit the truth, until his silence threatens to destroy them both. Maurice Elvey directs this drama based on a novel by Stefan Zweig.

Director

Maurice Elvey

Maurice Elvey (11 November 1887 – 28 August 1967) was the most prolific film director in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year.

Born William Seward Folkard in Stockton-on-Tees, Elvey began his career as an actor at the age of 17. He quickly rose to directing and producing plays and established his own theatrical company before switching to films with The Great Gold Robbery in 1913. He directed a wide array of popular features in a variety of genres, including comedy, drama, literary adaptations – including Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Suicide Club (1914) and a version of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It entitled Love in a Wood (1916) – and biographical profiles of such luminaries as Florence Nightingale and Lord Nelson. The Life Story of David Lloyd George, suppressed for political reasons just prior to its release in 1918, had its world premiere in Cardiff in May 1996 and… read more

Maurice Elvey (11 November 1887 – 28 August 1967) was the most prolific film director in British history. He directed nearly 200 films between 1913 and 1957. During the silent film era he directed as many as twenty films per year.

Born William Seward Folkard in Stockton-on-Tees, Elvey began his career as an actor at the age of 17. He quickly rose to directing and producing plays and established his own theatrical company before switching to films with The Great Gold Robbery in 1913. He directed a wide array of popular features in a variety of genres, including comedy, drama, literary adaptations – including Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Suicide Club (1914) and a version of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It entitled Love in a Wood (1916) – and biographical profiles of such luminaries as Florence Nightingale and Lord Nelson. The Life Story of David Lloyd George, suppressed for political reasons just prior to its release in 1918, had its world premiere in Cardiff in May 1996 and was hailed by critics and film historians as one of the best silent films produced in the UK.

In 1921, Elvey directed 16 shorts and one full-length feature film (The Hound of the Baskervilles) with Ellie Norwood as Sherlock Holmes. The actor was Arthur Conan Doyle’s favorite among those who portrayed his literary sleuth.

Elvey worked with such performers as Leslie Howard, Gracie Fields, Claude Rains, Alastair Sim, Leslie Banks, and Fay Wray, and mentored future directors Carol Reed and David Lean. In 1944, he was charmed by Petula Clark when he saw her perform at the Royal Albert Hall, and he launched her film career by casting her as a precocious waif in his wartime drama Medal for the General. The two collaborated on three additional films.

Elvey was married three times, to actress Philippa Preston, sculptor Florence Hill Clarke, and actress Isobel Elsom, whom he met on the set of The Wandering Jew in 1923. The couple went on to make eight films together.

The loss of an eye and failing health prompted Elvey’s retirement at the age of 70. Ten years later he died in Brighton. —Wikipedia

read less