Themes: Women During Wartime, Life Under Occupation
Main Cast: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Denholm Elliott, Anthony Higgins, Christien Anholt
Release Year: 1991
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
This award-winning TV production tells the true story of a heroic woman's underground operation to spirit Allied soldiers out of Nazi-occupied France. Her name is Mary Lindell, a British-born Red Cross nurse living in France with her two teenage children, Maurice and Barbé, by Lindell's marriage to Count de Melville. The story begins in Paris in 1940 when a downed British flier, Maj. James Legatt (Sam Neill), stumbles to a table at a sidewalk cafe. Dressed in a shin-to-shoulder overcoat and dizzy with fatigue, he plops into a chair. At a table nearby, Lindell (Judy Davis) notices his boots -- British issue and a dead giveaway. When German soldiers approach the flier, Lindell walks to his table and slaps him smartly, pretending he is her drunken husband. The ruse works. Lindell then takes Legatt to her home in a taxi and nurses him to health. During their time together, they fall in love -- chastely, without overtly disclosing their affection for each other. Using her feminine wiles and forceful personality to bamboozle SS hounds, she effects his escape back to England, then dedicates herself to rescuing other allies. All goes well until a flier botches his escape. An investigation and trial send Lindell to prison for nine months, which she barely survives. After her release, her son and daughter hide her and restore her to health, and Lindell goes back to work smuggling Allies across the border -- this time with the aid of a priest (Denholm Elliot) and Maj. Legatt, who tracks her activities from his headquarters in England. She eventually ends up in the Ravensbrück concentration camp north of Berlin, and in the conclusion of the production, viewers learn the ultimate fate of Lindell and Legatt. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Review
Judy Davis is magnificent in her role as Mary Lindell in this 1991 TV miniseries about Lindell's death-defying efforts to sneak downed allied pilots out of Nazi-occupied France. Willful, persistent, devious, charming -- Davis is all of these things as she walks in the shoes of the real-life Lindell, a British woman who became a French countess by marriage and risked everything to harbor stranded allied pilots and eventually lead them to safety. It is no exaggeration to say that Davis' performance is a tour de force, and she has a 1992 Golden Globe Award for best actress in a miniseries to prove it. The production itself won a Golden Globe for best miniseries and an Emmy for casting and sound. The production is also notable for incubating the career of another fine actress, Kate Beckinsale, whose starring performance in Pearl Harbor was one of the few redeeming features of that blockbuster dud. In One Against the Wind, Beckinsale gives a poignant performance as Lindell's 15-year-old daughter, Barbé, who falls hopelessly in love with a German soldier. Other strong performances come from Sam Neill as a rescued Brit who falls in love with Lindell, Denholm Elliott as a French priest who helps Lindell in her underground operation, and Anthony Higgins as a detestable SS officer who hounds Lindell. The fast-moving plot features many suspenseful scenes: Nazi searches, harrowing border crossings, interrogations, and a funeral procession hiding escapees. And the suspense lasts right down to the final scene. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
Kate Beckinsale - Barbe; Peter Cellier - Court General; Stefan Gryff - Fernand; Paul Haigh - Sealove; Wolf Kahler - Commander Reingart; Frank Middlemass - Dubois; Stevan Rimkus - German Pilot; David Ryall - Dumont; John Savident - Henry Smallwood; Mark Wing-Davey - Colonel Miles; Terry Taplin - Von Bismarck; John Sandford - Gunner
Credit
Betsy Faith Heimann - Costume Designer, Larry Elikann - Director, Lee Holdridge - Composer (Music Score), John Blezard - Production Designer, Dennis C. Lewiston - Cinematographer, Tom Reeve - Producer, William Hill - Producer, Chris Bryant - Screenwriter
