CONSPIR/-\CY OF |-|EARTS 5

Lilli Palmer's Italian Mother Superior risks all to save Jewish orphans from the Nazis in Ralph Thomas's worthy WWII drama
It's 1943, and the Italian army's Major Spoletti (Lewis) finds himself in charge of a Nazi concentration camp for Jewish orphans. It's an awful job for a man with his conscience, and he'd happily free the poor little mites if it didn't mean certain execution for him and his soldiers. So when the local resistance digs a tunnel into the camp and starts liberating eight to ten of the pint-sized prisoners each night, he turns a blind eye.

The freed children will eventually be sent to a Middle East safe haven, but while they wait to be transported they're hidden in the crypt of a nearby convent run by Mother Katharine (Palmer). To begin with, the operation runs smoothly and relatively risk-free. However, when cold Nazi Colonel Horsten (Lieven) replaces Spoletti at the camp, the scam becomes very dangerous indeed. And as Horsten and the vicious Lieutenant Schmidt (Arne) start sniffing round the convent, the nuns' sense of charitable Christian duty is tested to almost unbearable limits. Having directed most of the 'Carry On' and 'Doctor' series, you'd think that Ralph Thomas would be the last person to put his hand to a Holocaust tearjerker, but you're in for a surprise. This uplifting film brims with tension and pathos while radiating compassion. There are fine performances too, notably from Palmer as the indomitable shepherdess, Mother Katherine, and Yvonne Mitchell as Sister Gerta, whose hard-hearted reticence to risking her life for a Jew, whatever age, is gradually softened by one of the orphans.

Robert Presnell Jr's script heightens the drama with a series of suspenseful scenes that keep the film ticking along towards its unforgettable finale, and the film still finds time for a tender subplot about the budding romance between Major Spoletti and glowing novice Sister Mitya (Syms). There's even a welcome smattering of gentle comedy, including one lovely scene in which the nuns are given a crash course in Judaic ceremony when a Rabbi (played by Free guitarist Paul Kossof's father David) is smuggled into the convent to help the children celebrate Yom Kippur.

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Film & Animation

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