‘CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE’, 1958 – DIRECTOR’S SHOOTING SCRIPTS AND RELATED MATERIAL (7)

Two film scripts, one a ‘Shooting Script’, 117 pp. of mimeograph typescript in red card covers, the front cover printed in black italic script Carve Her Name With Pride, unannotated; a ‘Final Shooting Script’, 125 pp. of mimeograph typescript bound in red hard covers, the front cover gilt-stamped TOP FLOOR / DIRECTOR / SCRIPTS LTD; a mimeograph typescript Call Sheet, 15 October 57; an illustrated souvenir booklet; a World Premiere programme, Leicester Square Theatre, Thursday 20 February, 1958; three tickets to the Press Show, 19 February, 1958; a black and white portrait photograph of the Second World War spy Violette Szabo, signed and inscribed in black ink Violette Szabo. G.C. – 21 x 16 cm.; and a scrapbook of press clippings.

In his autobiography, All My Flashbacks, Gilbert states that Carve Her Name With Pride “turned out to be one of my favourite films”.  The film tells the true story of Violette Szabo, a spy in the Second World War.  An Englishwoman who married a French man, Violette also had a French mother and spoke the language fluently.  When her husband was killed at El Alamein in 1942, only months after their wedding, Violette channelled the grief at her loss into a determination to help the war effort and was eventually sent to occupied France as a spy. After numerous heroic endeavours, she was captured and interred in Ravensbruck concentration camp where she was tortured and, tragically, died.  In 1946 she was posthumously awarded the George Cross. Violette was played by Virginia McKenna, who received a BAFTA nomination for ‘Best Actress’ for her portrayal of the spy.  After the film came out, Gilbert recalls Alfred Hitchcock telephoning him to see if he could persuade McKenna to consider changing her mind about becoming the next ‘Hitchcock blonde’ (she had already turned him down); Grace Kelly had retired to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco and Hitchcock needed a new leading lady, but McKenna wasn’t interested in stepping into the role as she wanted to devote time to her own young family.

Photograph Sold Without Copyright

Literature: GILBERT, Lewis All My Flashbacks, The Autobiography of Lewis Gilbert, Sixty Years A Film Director, Reynolds & Hearn, London, 2010

Bellmans is grateful to Wallace & Hodgson for their assistance with cataloguing the Lewis Gilbert Film Script and Production Archive.