Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Leofwine_draca THE CAPTIVE HEART is one of the earlier movies from Ealing Studios, made before they were known for their genteel, witty comedies. It's a standard WW2 prisoner of war flick, with a greater depth of characterisation than most. At times it gets into romantic and tragic territory, recalling the likes of BRIEF ENCOUNTER, but it also includes some genre tropes and ideas which add excitement. As with many British war films of this era, most of the fun comes from seeing an ensemble cast doing their bit, from the big names like Michael Redgrave and Mervyn Johns right through to the smaller parts from the youthful Gordon Jackson and Sam Kydd.

Adam Peters (53%) A very simplistic prisoner of war drama from Ealing studios about a Czech man who changes his identity to that of a British captured soldier to avoid being killed. This looks at the life of both the prisoners and their family back home giving a decent incite into the inner workings of wartime for the vast majority of normal people. The performances are largely standard stuff, with some touches of film noir to the again pretty standard direction. While the plot is predicable with very little in terms of surprises, but the fact that this was released only a few years after the war itself, and as everyone back then who watched this had actually lived through the misery of that page in time, so the makers didn't really attempt to over-aggrandise the events that directors now might feel more inclined. Overall this is so-so matinée stuff that I'd only recommend to big war movie buffs.

robert-temple-1 This is an immensely sensitive and very moving film about British POWs rounded up by the Germans at Dunkerque (Dunkirk) in 1940 and marched 220 miles to be interned for the rest of the War in a German POW camp. The film is half about them and half about their lives and loves back home, utilising flashbacks as well as real time events intercut with the men in the camp. The technique is carried out so well that it is highly effective and never seems forced. Much of the film was made in Germany, including the reconstruction of the POW camp. The film aimed for absolute authenticity, and was made with the passion and intensity which was perhaps only possible in the year immediately following the War, when all the issues raised were at their peak of relevance, both to the people making the film and the viewing public. The film is full of wonderful, sensitive and deeply-felt performances. They all really put their hearts into it, and it shows. For instance, rarely can the character actor Mervyn John have embodied such pathos. And the intensity of emotion conveyed by both Rachel Kempson and Jane Barrett is remarkable. Barrett died tragically young at the age of only 46, in 1969, having worked a great deal in television but never obtained the quality roles worthy of her in feature films. Thus she is little known today, but this film shows her qualities admirably. This was one of director Basil Dearden's finest films. He made it immediately after his two episodes of DEAD OF NIGHT (1946), and three years later he directed two episodes of the wonderful classic, TRAIN OF EVENTS (1949, see my review), one of which also dealt with prisoners of war. (The ironical thing is that Dearden made films all through the War and was not in the services, so had no military experience.) It is apparently in this film that Dearden's long professional association with Michael Relph commenced. Relph was both Associate Producer and Art Director on this film. Later he would produce most of Dearden's films. The lead role in this film is played by Michael Redgrave. He had already been married to Rachel Kempson for eleven years when they played in this film together. Redgrave plays a Czech soldier who has escaped from Dachau and is being hunted by the Germans. He speaks perfect English and indeed has been Professor of English at Prague University. He comes across the dead body of Captain Geoffrey Mitchell, a British officer, and takes his identity and uniform, is captured by the Germans and sent to the POW camp as an Englishman. The real Mitchell had been estranged from his wife (played by Rachel Kempson). Redgrave is forced to engage in correspondence with his 'wife' in order to convince the Germans that he is not an impostor. He smashes his right hand so that he is forced to write with his left, as a way of excusing the change of hand-writing to his 'wife'. They then exchange increasingly passionate letters to one another over the years, leading to an awkward situation when the War finally nears its end and Redgrave is 'repatriated' to England as Captain Mitchell. There are wonderful character parts for Gordon Jackson, Jack Warner, Gladys Henson, and others. Derek Bond is excellent as a sensitive concert pianist, Lieutenant Harley. The following year he was to make a big hit as Nicholas Nickleby in the film of that (1947). He never achieved lasting star status, and died as recently as 2006 after appearing in 67 titles. This film, done with such passion and integrity, is a classic of the time, and makes compulsive viewing today considering what it conveys of historical importance, of the manners, situations, and modes of feeling of that period.

bkoganbing In Stalag 17 there's a famous scene and line where the audience who now knows that Peter Graves is an agent is pitching horseshoes and trying to obtain information, as he lands one, an off screen voice says 'that's a ringer.'The British prisoners, mostly from Dunkirk, who because of capture sat out the war have a ringer among them in The Captive Heart. It's Michael Redgrave, but his is not an espionage mission. He's a Czech who's escaped from a concentration camp and found himself on the battlefield where the defenseless British have surrendered. He takes the identity and uniform of a dead officer and is then 'caught' by the Germans.To keep up the deception Redgrave writes letters back to his 'wife' in the United Kingdom, played by his real life wife Rachel Kempson. She and her real husband have not gotten along and truth be told his call up for war was greeted with some relief. But Redgrave wrote such poetical stuff she falls for him by correspondence.Although Redgrave's story is the main plot line, there are others that are nicely acted. Young Gordon Jackson goes blind because of lack of proper care for his wounds and he gives a touching performance. And chief officer of the prisoners, Basil Radford is an inspiring leader among them, trying to keep up morale as best he can.The Captive Heart is a tandem pulling of the strings on the auricle and ventricle of the viewer. It's a fine wartime romantic drama with equal accent on the war and the romance. It was done just as Michael Redgrave was reaching his heights as one of the United Kingdom's premier players. Try not to miss it if it is broadcast.