Florence Nightingale: The Television Movie

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

Florence Nightingale seems like a ready-made subject for a biographical film or television production. She was a pioneer in nursing. She is held as a model for womanhood. Florence Nightingale, the television movie, is proper and respectable. While it has a curious choice for the lead, Florence Nightingale treats the subject with the proper respect and respectability. 

Florence Nightingale (Jaclyn Smith) is the belle of the ball in Victorian high society. She has many male admirers. One of them is Richard Milnes (Timothy Dalton), a dashing man about town and country. He serves as voiceover to our tale. Florence's parents Fanny (Claire Bloom) and William (Jeremy Brett) are mostly pleased with how well Flo is getting on in high society. Fanny is less pleased that Flo seems set on an independent life. Mr. Nightingale sees that his daughter is too bright to be nothing but a society doyenne.

Florence is set on changing nursing. She is appalled at how nurses and hospitals are very unkempt. She pushes on, despite endless opposition. This opposition continues after reading of the horrid conditions of British troops during the Crimean War. Determined to help the cause, Nightingale gathers her nurses and goes to Scutari (present-day Uskudar, Turkey). 

Here, the haughty British military leadership is askance at any woman, even the now-legendary Nightingale, would tell them how to do things. Her chief nemesis is the haughty Dr. Hall (Jeremy Child). He is dead set against letting Nightingale's trained women enter the makeshift hospitals. He goes so far as to forbid the men from receiving any anesthetic treatment, believing pain is the best medicine for British glory. Nevertheless, she persisted. Slowly pushing where she can, Nightingale gets things done. She also has friends in high places and the press on her side. However, will she have to sacrifice personal happiness for the greater good? Will she have to sacrifice her own health too?

Perhaps the oddest thing in Florence Nightingale is the casting of Jaclyn Smith as our heroine. It is not that Smith gives a bad performance. On the contrary, she is effective in the role. We see Florence as a very caring and wise figure. She tends to all regardless of rank or status. I would go so far as to say that she has a greater fondness for the lower classes. Smith shows her quiet but firm resolve whenever facing off against her opponents. It could be Nurse Davis (Carol Gillies), who is of the old school and who is sometimes helpful, sometimes not. She could also show the woman within whether with Dalton's Milnes or Dr. Lawrence Sutherland (Stephan Chase), an unofficial suitor in the Crimea. 

The problem is the fact that she is clearly American. I think that Smith made as good a go on a British accent, particularly an upper-class one, as she could. However, she sounded more American than British. Again, she was not bad in the role. She just never got the patrician tones all down. 

Timothy Dalton was our narrator in Florence Nightingale. Ivan Moffat and Rose Leiman Goldemberg's screenplay does not make a case as to why Flo's thwarted suitor Richard Milnes has to be the one to tell us her story. Her parents are still alive. Florence learns though a letter that he has grown tired of waiting and decided to marry someone else. Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale could easily have done the voiceover work. In fact, it might have been better if only to have Jeremy Brett's voice tell us of his daughter's exploits.

Still, Dalton and Smith worked well together, their scenes having at times a moving impact on this ill-fated romance. The aforementioned Brett was grand and elegant as Mr. Nightingale. Claire Bloom was delightful as the sometimes-scandalized Mrs. Nightingale. She shifted from shocked to supportive to ultimately proud of her headstrong but loving daughter. 

Another standout is Child as the haughty Hall. He is thoroughly despicable and arrogant doctor. Child pops up late in Florence Nightingale. Each time one sees him, however, one is filled with such anger at his coldness, indifference and brutality. He is vainglorious and uncaring except for a wildly idiotic sense of courage. In Hall's mind, it is better for the wounded soldiers to endure pain than to receive treatment because it will make them stronger and more noble. 

Director Daryl Duke gets strong performances out of his cast. He keeps things moving well. He also has some wonderful moments, such as a montage of potential nurses interviewed by Nightingale culminating in the reappearance of Nurse Davis. 

Florence Nightingale is a respectable biographical telefilm, complete with its elegant score. The one drawback is Jaclyn Smith's struggle to have a British accent. One does fight the temptation to call the project Charlie's Nurses. On the whole, however, Florence Nightingale will serve as a good primer to this exceptional and legendary figure.

1820-1910

7/10