The Feminine Touch

George Baker - Dr Jim Alcott
Belinda Lee - Susan Richards
Delphi Lawrence - Pat Martin
Adrienne Corri - Maureen O'Brien
Henryetta Edwards - Ann Bowland
Barbara Archer - Liz Jenkins
Diana Wynyard - Matron
Christopher Rhodes - Dr Ted Russell

The Feminine Touch followed the careers of a group of five student nurses in the approved Ealing manner, and was directed by Pat Jackson, a former documentary director who had made another hospital drama feature five years earlier for Rank called White Corridors. The source material this time was a novel, A Lamp is Heavy by Sheila Mackay Russell, adapted by Ian McCormick. The contrasted girls were Belinda Lee, Adrienne Corri, Delphi Lawrence, Henryetta Edwards and Barbara Archer, with Diana Wynyard as the upright matron and George Baker as a young house doctor. The hospital routine is presented in the usual straightforward, no-nonsense way, and the various emotional problems of the nurses are gradually superseded by their sense of vocation.

A worthy if unoriginal film, it provided a view of the probationer nurse's lot in a reasonably entertaining manner, and the EastmanColour photography by Paul Beeson captured convincingly the atmosphere of the hospital.
Extract© George Perry: Forever Ealing.