Conspiracy of Hearts
7.2 /10 1 Votes7.2
Producer Betty Box Country United Kingdom | 7/10 Genre Drama, War Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 1960 Cast (Mother Katharine), (Sister Mitya), (Sister Gerta), (Major Spoletti), (Colonel Horsten), (Lt. Schmidt) Similar movies Fury , Captain America: The First Avenger , The Godfather , Casino Royale , The Book Thief , The Sound of Music Tagline Torture, Killing and Vicious Passions...And Incredible Courage |
Conspiracy of Hearts is a 1960 British Second World War film, directed by Ralph Thomas, about nuns in Italy smuggling Jewish children out of an internment camp near their convent to save them from the Holocaust. It stars Lilli Palmer, Sylvia Syms, Yvonne Mitchell and Ronald Lewis, and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Film Promoting International Understanding at the 18th Golden Globe Awards in 1961.
Contents

Plot

In 1943 Italy, some nuns protect Jewish children who have escaped from a concentration camp.
Cast
TV Production

The film was originally a teleplay credited to Dale Pitt, a writer who was acting as a "front" for blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter Adrian Scott. This teleplay was set in 1946 and concerned nuns helping Jewish children to get to Palestine. It aired in 1956 as an episode of Goodyear Playhouse directed by Robert Mulligan.
Production

The film version was written by Robert Presnell Jnr, who set the story in 1943. Presnell was reportedly a front for Dalton Trumbo. The script was optioned by Albert C. Gannaway in 1958 who could not get finance.

Betty Box became enthusiastic about the movie and wanted to make it. She took it to the Rank Organisation. Box says Rank did not want them to make the movie but allowed her because of the success of the Doctor in the House series. "They said, 'It's religion, it's nuns, it's wartime, who wants to know? Tell you what, make us another Doctor and you can do it!" Box and Thomas made Doctor in Love (1960) as a pay off for Rank financing the movie.

The film was shot on location in Italy and at Pinewood Studios in London. Some filming took place at La Certosa di Galluso monastery near Florence.
Reception
The film was a financial success being the 5th most popular film at the British box office in 1960. (Doctor in Love was even more popular.)
US rights were bought by Barney Balaban of Paramount. Thomas says Balaban paid the largest amount Rank had received for a picture until then.
References
Conspiracy of Hearts WikipediaConspiracy of Hearts IMDb Conspiracy of Hearts themoviedb.org