Virginia McKenna, best part offered to British actress

[stuart.uk]

Spoiler Alert

Virginia McKenna is one of Britain's greatest ever actresses. she also had one of the best screen romantic partnerships with her real life husband Bill Travers, making The Smallest Show On Earth, Born Free and Ring Of Bright Water together. she also made classics like The Cruel Sea with Donald Sinden and a A Town Like Alice with Peter Finch.

however, if Ginny hadn't made any of those films, but only Carve Her Name With Pride, she'd still one of the UKs top actresses. it's IMO the best part offered to a British actress and Ginny delivered the goods. it was the true story of an ordinary English girl with a French mother working in a jewelery shop at the begining of WW2. her name is Violette Szabo and she meets a French Foriegn Leigon soldier in a park and after only a few days they marry. while he's away fighting, she has his daughter, but he's killed in battle.

Vi, who as well as being able to speak French is a crack shot with a rifle and is approached by the British secret service, who train her to be one of their agents. Vi has one successful mission in France with her boss and potential boyfriend paul Scofield, but both are captured in the 2nd one. in Vi's (she's injured her leg) case she shoots and kills several German soldiers while a comrade swims a stream to safety before she's captured.

Scofield's character survives, but Vi and two fellow female agents are executed by firing squad just as the war is near its end. after the war her parents (the father played by the great character acter Jack Warner) and daughter go to Buckingham Palace where the little girl is presented on her late mother's behalf with the George Cross from the King

it reminds me to of Oddette with Anna Neagle and Trevor Howard. a true, but similiar story with a harrowing torture scene with the leading lady. however, possibly because she was supposedly married to Howard's Peter Churchill, a distant relation of Winston, she's released and asked by German officers to escort them to Allied soldiers so they can surrender

Oddette was an advisor on Carve Her Name With Pride

[klondike]

I caught Ms. McKenna just last autumn in an episode of BBC's reality-auction show "Cash in the Attic", and was pleasantly surprised to find her to be not only warmly upbeat, and, as ever, imbued with a deep, rich sense of character, but quite the strikingly handsome woman, given her age.
Something about her (though certainly not her looks, nor voice) reminded me consistently of interviews w/ Kate Hepburn that I'd seen from late 1980's.

[feaito]

I haven only seen her in "Born Free" (1966) -its Title song is one of my all-time favorite tunes- and as Jennifer Jones' younger sister (playing the role portrayed by Maureen O'Sullivan in the 1934 Shearer version) in the 1957 "The Barretts of Wimpole Street". I remember she was very good in both. BTW, TCM USA aired the latter recently.