This is probably the oldest film I've seen to deal with the issue of forced female circumcision, referred to here as mutilation but made clear through other details of what the conversation is referring to. It's the most dramatic role of Angie Dickinson's classic movie career, but she wasn't about to become another Audrey Hepburn/Liz Taylor/Joanne Woodward.
In the 1930's, this would have been a lot shorter and starred someone like Kay Francis or Ruth Chatterton, along with George Brent and Ian Hunter in the Peter Finch and Roger Moore roles. It's 1940 in the Belgian Congo, and missionary nurse Dickinson doesn't practice what she preaches, ending up pregnant after discussing a chaste existence with natives she meets but unable to resist Moore's charms.
He's a wounded military doctor brought in for treatment at the camp run by British colonel Peter Finch, and after being cured is sent back to active duty. Dickinson is of course ashamed of her situation and wants to resign, but Finch steps in to be noble, just as Hunter or Brent would have done with Francis or Chatterton 25 years before. Mary Wickes doesn't get a comical part here as the mission housekeeper, but she makes the most of a small part. Beautiful to look at, but terribly soapy, it's a lavish saga where preaching against sin turns the preacher into a sinner.
In the 1930's, this would have been a lot shorter and starred someone like Kay Francis or Ruth Chatterton, along with George Brent and Ian Hunter in the Peter Finch and Roger Moore roles. It's 1940 in the Belgian Congo, and missionary nurse Dickinson doesn't practice what she preaches, ending up pregnant after discussing a chaste existence with natives she meets but unable to resist Moore's charms.
He's a wounded military doctor brought in for treatment at the camp run by British colonel Peter Finch, and after being cured is sent back to active duty. Dickinson is of course ashamed of her situation and wants to resign, but Finch steps in to be noble, just as Hunter or Brent would have done with Francis or Chatterton 25 years before. Mary Wickes doesn't get a comical part here as the mission housekeeper, but she makes the most of a small part. Beautiful to look at, but terribly soapy, it's a lavish saga where preaching against sin turns the preacher into a sinner.