PAULINE FREDERICK PLAYS NURSE CAVELL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 206, 19 November 1927, Page 23 (Supplement)

PAULINE FREDERICK PLAYS NURSE CAVELL

j< FILMED IN BRUSSELS I ° e NEW ZEALANDER’S SCENARIO 0

1 - -j | /""VN the twelfth anniversary j | of the death of Nurse | j Edith Cavell, Herbert Wilcox J | commenced work at Brussels | ( on a film dealing with her I j life. j Pauline Frederick will play | ! lead in this picture which will | I be called “Hawn.” Mr. Wilcox was assured of the assistance of the Belgian authorities, and he found in Brussels such a wealth of poignant memory surrounding the name of Nurse Cavell that at no point will he depart from actual history. In the last scenes of all Nurse Cavell, after the trial, is discovered in her prison cell, reading her Bible. Outside, in the guardroom, the German soldiers, who are her warders, have decided that they cannot shoot a woman. They believe there will be no execution. They are drinking and singing a drinking song. Presently there comes to the prison a priest. He Is conducted to the cell. Nurse Cavell sees him. She knows what his presence means. She speaks the one word. “When?” The priest replies, “Dawn,” j the word which has been chosen as ! the title of the picture. ; At dawn, Nurse Cavell is led from ’ the cell, and by motor-car is taken \ six miles to the place of execution. [ Our worst criminals are not taken such a journey. Nurse Cavell spoke only once. She asked, “How much farther?” , Arrived at what is now the military - rifle range of Belgium, she was taken 3 through a long corridor, lined with 3 ! rifles of many ages. So, she came face . to face with her executioners. She I refused to have her eyes bandaged.

rhe officer of the firing party gave :he order, “Present arms!” One soldier disregarded the order. The officer, with a poor heart for his job, shot the soldier dead. Again the order was given. This time it was obeyed, but on the command, “Fire,” every rifle lifted and every shot went over Nurse Cavell’s head. Then, for the first time in 14 months

of an experience worse than war, her i fortitude deserted her. She fainted. i In the end, the officer of the firing party had to be executioner himself, ( and it is on record that with his left hand he had to steady his right hand 1 as he fired a shot that echoed round < the world. i

The narrative has been written by Captain Reginald Berkeley, M.C.. tl e New Zealand playwright now in London, and a play telling this immortal story in stage form is now in prepara - j tion. j We do not realise the reverence in j which the memory of Nurse Cavell is 51 held. It is not generally known that.

in her honour, every nurse irt Belgium now wears English nurse’s uniform. It is more remarkable still that a German film company has offered to collaborate in the production. The offer has been declined, but “Dawn** will be shown throughout Germany.