The Captive Heart
| The Captive Heart | |
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Original British 1946 quad film poster
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| Directed by | Basil Dearden |
| Produced by |
Michael Balcon Michael Relph (associate producer) |
| Screenplay by |
Angus MacPhail Guy Morgan |
| Story by | Patrick Kirwan |
| Starring |
Michael Redgrave Rachel Kempson |
| Music by | Alan Rawsthorne |
| Cinematography | Douglas Slocombe |
| Edited by | Charles Hasse |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | GFD (UK) |
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Release date
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Running time
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104 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Captive Heart is a 1946 British war drama, directed by Basil Dearden and starring Michael Redgrave. The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.
In the summer of 1940, Captain Karel Hasek (Michael Redgrave) of the Czech army escapes from Dachau concentration camp and assumes the identity of a dead British officer, Captain Geoffrey Mitchell. When he is caught, he joins thousands of British prisoners of war, captured during the Fall of France, on a march to a prison camp.
He is suspected of being a spy by his fellow soldiers because of a few small errors and his fluency in the German language. Captain Grayson (Guy Middleton) wants to lynch him forthwith, but Major Dalrymple (Basil Radford), the senior British officer, hears Hasek out and believes his story.
To avoid suspicion, he has to maintain the fiction that Mitchell is still alive by corresponding with Mitchell's widow Celia (Rachel Kempson). Prior to the war, Mitchell had abandoned his wife and their two children, but the letters rekindle Celia's love.
After their escape tunnel is discovered, the prisoners resign themselves to a long stay. In 1944, when Herr Forster (Karel Stepanek), who ran Dachau during Hasek's stay, visits the camp, Hasek fears he may be unmasked. The official compliments him on his nearly perfect German and seems to recognise him, but cannot quite place him. Hasek is sure time is running out; it is announced that some prisoners are to be repatriated, but when he goes for his medical examination to see if he qualifies, he is turned away. A plan is devised to save him (without his knowledge). Private Mathews (Jimmy Hanley), a burglar in civilian life, breaks into the Kommandant's office late at night with two other men. They find the list of those to be repatriated and replace Mathews' own name with Mitchell's. On the way back to the barracks, Mathews is attacked by a guard dog and rescued by Hasek. The plan works, and Hasek is "returned" to Britain.
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