review for Carve Her Name With Pride on AllMovie

Adapted from R. J. Minney's book of the same name, Carve Her Name With Pride is a suitably low-key, very serious retelling of a true story from World War II. It's also a bit on the low-budget side, which is as it should be, as it is really an actor's movie, in this case carried almost entirely by Virginia McKenna with some help from Jack Warner and Paul Scofield. Given the tragic nature of the outcome, it's difficult for the movie to ignore a certain dourness in tone, but within those limits, the film is an engaging character study by the actress, who brings some of the complexities to Szabo's situation -- working on behalf of the government, and unable to tell anyone, including her own family -- to vivid life. The flat, black-and-white film gives some of the scenes the appearance of documentary-style verisimilitude. For fans of director Lewis Gilbert's output, this movie is closer in spirit to his The Sea Shall Not Have Them (1954), Reach For The Sky (1956) or Sink The Bismarck (1960) (the latter two also based on true stories from World War II) than to his better-known, much flashier work on You Only Live Twice (1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Moonraker (1979).