Beware of Pity

Date: 1946
Director: Maurice Elvey
Production Company: Two Cities Films

Stars: Lilli Palmer, Albert Lieven, Cedric Hardwicke, Gladys Cooper
Location(s): Paris, Somerset, Vienna

Region(s): , ,

Storyline:

Disabled after a riding accident, a Baroness mistakes compassion for love when young Lieutenant spends time getting to know her.

Additional Information:

Screen captures by Phil Wilkinson

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  • Capture 1
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In flashback, an elderly Lieutenant Anton Marek tells his story when a young Sergeant comes to him for romantic advice. "The regiment was on the move to a new garrison town about halfway between Prague and Vienna." Horseshoe Bend on Cliff Road as it passes through the Cheddar Gorge in Somerset.

  • Capture 2
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"It was one of those long, wearisome rides. Coming round a deep gorge I looked up and saw above me, a castle." An obvious matte to the top but are the cliffs in Somerset?

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"Garrison towns are as alike as two buttons on a uniform, at least they were in those days." This appears to be Cliff Road below Priest Rock. Other views of Cliff Road can be seen in 'Third Party Risk'.

  • Capture 4
  • 14 Mar 2020

"As we came in, none of the townsfolk took any notice of us. They were so used to one regiment going and another one coming in." The building to the left still stands on Cliff Road near Gough's Cave to the east of Cheddar.

And here it is! SJ

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"Besides, there was never any love lost between officers and townsfolk in those days." Another matte shot, but is this Cheddar?

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"The officials and the Mayor were the only ones who took the slightest notice of us."

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After becoming friends with the Kekesfalva family, Anton Marek (Albert Lieven) returns from a ride and dismounts to speak with Baroness Edith de Kekesfalva (Lilli Palmer).

  • Capture 8
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Becoming angry at the Lieutenant's pity for her, the Baroness suggests that she could commit suicide and throws a bowl from the castle terrace into the gorge below.

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Lieutenant Marek takes a train to Vienna.

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A cut finds the train as it passes along the wall of a shallow valley.

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The Lieutenant arrives in the city where he visits Dr. Albert Condor. St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. The same shot appears in 1954's 'The Master Plan'.

  • Capture 12
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Later in the story, Lieutenant Marek is ordered to take the 5.30 train to Vienna.

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The train arrives at the terminus in Vienna and the Lieutenant makes his was to see Dr. Condor once again. Manuel Gurtner advises that here we see the Paris terminus Gare de Lyon, which also appears in 'Love in the Afternoon' and 'Pickpocket' as well as 'Top of the Form' in which this sequence is reused.

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Returning from Vienna with Major Sandor Balinkay, Lieutenant Marek shivers when the train enters a tunnel at the moment the Baroness plunges to her death from the castle.