Conspiracy of Hearts

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Conspiracy of Hearts - Wikipedia

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Conspiracy of Hearts
Original British cinema poster
Directed by	Ralph Thomas
Written by	Robert Presnell Jr.
Based on	"original material" by "Dale Pitt" (Adrian Scott)
Produced by	Betty E. Box executive Earl St. John
Starring	Lilli Palmer Sylvia Syms Yvonne Mitchell Ronald Lewis Albert Lieven
Cinematography	Ernest Steward
Edited by	Alfred Roome
Music by	Angelo Francesco Lavagnino
Production company	Rank Film Productions
Distributed by	Rank Film Distributors
Release date	19 February 1960 (1960-02-19)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Conspiracy of Hearts is a 1960 British Second World War film, directed by Ralph Thomas, about nuns in Italy smuggling Jewish children out of an internment camp near their convent to save them from The Holocaust. It stars Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms, Yvonne Mitchell and Ronald Lewis, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting International Understanding at the 18th Golden Globe Awards in 1961.

Plot

In 1943 Italy, nuns hide and protect Jewish children who have escaped from a concentration camp. The Italian camp has been taken over by German forces with a colonel and his sadistic lieutenant in command. When the colonel and lieutenant threaten to execute some of the nuns, including Mother Katharine, for helping the Jewish children to escape, the Italian soldiers block the execution and shoot the Germans dead. The Italian soldiers then leave the camp to join Italian partisans in the nearby hills.

Cast

Lilli Palmer as Mother Katharine
Sylvia Syms as Sister Mitya
Yvonne Mitchell as Sister Gerta
Ronald Lewis as Major Spoletti
Albert Lieven as Colonel Horsten
Peter Arne as Lieutenant Schmidt
Nora Swinburne as Sister Tia
Michael Goodliffe as Father Desmaines
Megs Jenkins as Sister Constance
David Kossoff as the Rabbi
Jenny Laird as Sister Honoria
George Coulouris as Petrelli
Phyllis Neilson-Terry as Sister Elisaveta
Maureen Pryor as Sister Consuela

TV production

The film was originally a teleplay credited to Dale Pitt, a writer who was acting as a "front" for blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Adrian Scott.^[1] This teleplay was set in 1946 and concerned nuns helping Jewish children to get to Palestine. It aired in 1956 as an episode of Goodyear Playhouse directed by Robert Mulligan.^[2]

Production

The film version was written by Robert Presnell Jr., who set the story in 1943. Presnell was reportedly a front for Dalton Trumbo. The script was optioned by Albert C. Gannaway in 1958, but he could not get financing to make the picture.^[3]

Betty Box became enthusiastic about the movie and wanted to make it. She took it to the Rank Organisation. Box says Rank did not want them to make the movie but allowed her because of the success of the Doctor in the House series. "They said, 'It's religion, it's nuns, it's wartime, who wants to know? Tell you what, make us another Doctor and you can do it!"^[4] Box and Thomas made Doctor in Love (1960) as a pay off for Rank financing the movie.

The film was shot on location in Italy and at Pinewood Studios in London. Some filming took place at La Certosa di Galluzzo monastery near Florence.^[5]

Reception

The film was a financial success, being the 5th most popular film at the British box office in 1960.^[4] (Doctor in Love was even more popular.)^[6]

US rights were bought by Barney Balaban of Paramount. Thomas says Balaban paid the largest amount Rank had received for a picture until then.^[7]

Filmink magazine argued it was arguably the best film from the team of Ralph Thomas and Betty Box.^[8]

References

^ "Obituary of Dale Pitt". Los Angeles Times.
^ Conspiracy of Hearts (1956 TV version) at IMDb
^ Bernard F Dick, Radical Innocence: A Critical Study of the Hollywood Ten, p 202
^ ^a ^b Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema, Metheun 1997 p86
^ "Picture Filmed in Italian Monastery". Los Angeles Times. 5 June 1960. p. G5.
^ Billings, Josh (15 December 1960). "It's Britain 1, 2, 3 again in the 1960 box office stakes". Kine Weekly. pp. 8–9.
^ Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema 1997 p 559
^ Vagg, Stephen (22 February 2023). "The Surprisingly Saucy Cinema of Sylvia Syms". Filmink. Retrieved 23 February 2023.

Box, Betty, Lifting the Lid, 2001

External links

Conspiracy of Hearts at the British Film Institute^{[better source needed]}
Conspiracy of Hearts at the British Board of Film Classification
Conspiracy of Hearts at IMDb
Conspiracy of Hearts at AllMovie

Films directed by Ralph Thomas

Once Upon a Dream (1949)
Helter Skelter (1949)
Traveller's Joy (1949)
The Clouded Yellow (1951)
Appointment with Venus (1951)
Venetian Bird (1952)
A Day to Remember (1953)
The Dog and the Diamonds (1953)
Doctor in the House (1954)
Mad About Men (1954)
Above Us the Waves (1955)
Doctor at Sea (1955)
The Iron Petticoat (1956)
Checkpoint (1956)
Doctor at Large (1957)
Campbell's Kingdom (1957)
A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
The Wind Cannot Read (1958)
The 39 Steps (1959)
Upstairs and Downstairs (1959)
Conspiracy of Hearts (1960)
Doctor in Love (1960)
No Love for Johnnie (1961)
No My Darling Daughter (1961)
A Pair of Briefs (1962)
Carry On Cruising (1962)
The Wild and the Willing (1962)
Doctor in Distress (1963)
Hot Enough for June (1964)
The High Bright Sun (1964)
Doctor in Clover (1966)
Deadlier Than the Male (1967)
Nobody Runs Forever (1968)
Some Girls Do (1969)
Doctor in Trouble (1970)
Percy (1971)
Quest for Love (1971)
The Love Ban (1973)
Percy's Progress (1974)
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (1979)