The hasty heart - 1949

A good film, sad, but not one I would watch and rewatch. I liked that it ended before the death...
It's a peculiar story: 1945, Burma, the war is over and the soldiers are going home, but those that have been injured can't go yet. Corporal Lachlan Mclachlan (Richard Todd) has recovered from the operation itself, but is left with just one kidney and unfortunately it's a bad one. The patients in the hospital ward are told about this, and knowing that he has but weeks to live they feel compassion and want to help. The corporal though knows nothing about it and can't understand why they won't let him go home. Everyone including Sister Parker tries to be as kind and as helpful as they can, but "Lackie", as they call him, has had a difficult life so he trusts no-one. He is very stubborn and openly hostile towards everyone. Sister Parker doesn't give up, and plans a birthday party for him. Touched by the gesture, Lackie becomes more friendly, and for the first time in his life he makes friends; he talks to them about his home in Scotland, asking if they'll like to go there, but they all have a home elsewhere and would like to return there. There's a guy from London, one from New Zealand, one from Australia, and there's Yank, obviously American, played by Ronald Reagan. There's another one too, an African man they call Blossom because that's the only English word he knows. At first I wondered about him, not sure why they included such a character that seemed to add very little to the story or the group, so the nicest bit of the film, at the end, was finding out that Blossom was actually the key to everything. Once told the truth, Lackie will of course believe that it was all an act, that they acted out of pity but were not real friends, so he closes up again, becoming once more hostile and proud; everyone tries to talk to him but he doesn't care for their words, not believing them. He's about to go home to spend his last days at home, and Blossom comes forward to give him the necklace he made. When Lackie throws it back at Blossom Yank gets angry. Of course they all felt pity for him (but it was out of friendship that Yank refused to go home, wanting to stay with him) but Blossom didn't know! Blossom doesn't understand English, so he didn't know before and still doesn't. That rules out the pity, so the gift can only be out of sympathy and friendship :-)
When Lackie is about to leave, he bursts into crying, finally saying that he doesn't want to die alone. There's nobody waiting for him in Scotland, so he asks them to accept him back, he wants to stay there with them, and of course they agree :-) The movie ends here, not showing us his death. It even ends on a funny note, with the English guy finally managing to look under his kilt to see if he wears anything :-p
One thing that puzzled me at first was that they called the girl "Sister" Parker, and I had thought she was a nun, but then Lackie proposed to her and to make him happy she accepted to marry him (before he knew of his fate, of course). At first Lackie was very unpleasant, but then he started acting like a child :-p because he had never had friends. The most touching bits were when Lackie told about home and future, and everyone looked sad knowing that that was never gonna happen.
Personally I don't share this belief that not knowing is better, although surely it depends on the person, it is not better to me.