'From the opening scene, showing the meeting in an English garden of a Belgian officer, and a ward of an old clergyman friend of Edith Cavell, until her execution for innocent errings on a cold October morning, the story is faithfully portrayed.'
Source:
'Star Pictures', Daily Herald [Adelaide], 29 March 1916, p.2.
La Revanche
( dir. W. J. Lincoln
)
Australia
:
J. C. Williamson's Ltd
,
1916
7564496
1916
single work
film/TV
A sequel to W.J. Lincoln's Nurse Cavell, this film follows the vengeance sought by Edith Cavell's friends not only on her behalf but on behalf of Belgium and the Belgians generally.
A contemporary report notes:
Messrs. W. J. Lincoln and F. D. Kehoe, the authors, take up the story where the Nurse Cavell picture left off, and by retaining the chief characters already used and introducing new ones, round it off. after a series of dramatic incidents, by avenging the death of the nurse. Many thrilling scenes are gone through, and a strong light is thrown upon the brutal acts which marked the occupation of Belgium by German soldiery.'
Source:
'La Revanche: Dramatic Sequel to the Nurse Cavell Infamy', The Mail [Adelaide], 6 May 1916, p.6.
A contemporary advertisement offers a more details synopsis, which doubles as propaganda:
Whilst the world stood aghast and amazed at the Hun's barbarous and atrocious murder of Nurse Cavell, in the quiet Belgian village of Noue, a Belgian officer and his wife are weighed down with grief, for was it not that noble woman who delivered them from the hands of the worst barbarians the world has ever known. He has much food for thought–and with thought action, and come what may the avengance of Nurse Cavell's death should be his, and his alone.
How events happen which bring him within reach of that scum of humanity who effected that dastardly crime provides many thrills; it also portrays the humiliation, the crimes, and savagery meted out to the civil population of suffering Belgium. The man who ommitted to salute a Hun officer in the street and was flogged to death; an old man who objected to the Hun treatment of young Belgian girls, and the boy who tried to defend him, shot in cold blood. Whilst on the other hand is seen the Kaiser awarding his now famous Iron Cross to the man who murdered a good woman and jeered at the dying cries of an old man.
Then you follow the footsteps of a brave Belgian officer, with one thought, one path, the revenge for the woman's life so ruthlessly taken, the devastation of his country and his people–the achievement–its cost.
When you have seen this picture you will say, Can such things be? The answer is–Yes, there are worse.
Are these despoilers and barbarians to live and dominate the world's peace? The answer is again,
YES, IF YOU STILL STAY AT HOME.
Source:
'La Revanche', The Independent, 15 April 1916, p.6.
