Country: GB
Technical: bw 123m
Director: Michael Powell
Cast: Eric Portman, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Glynis Johns, Niall MacGinnis
Synopsis:
German U-boat crewmen reckon with fur-trappers, Hutterite farmers, a cultured writer and Canadian reservist AWOL during their trek across Canada, but meet their match wherever they go.
Review:
Patronisingly propagandist in its portrait of the Nazis though it may be, this noted contribution to the war effort (Vaughan Williams score and all) does contain some literate confrontations between fascist and democrat, and boasts dramatic use of Canadian locations. The film, which was part government funded, set out to persuade the US to join the war, but was overtaken by events: Pearl Harbor happened two weeks after its general release. The episodic narrative and star cameos would have made it an ideal Royal Command Performance, but that would have to wait for A Matter of Life and Death (1946). As usual from P&P, the script showcases humour, sentiment, faith in the human spirit and imaginatively staged action, and the film certainly transcends its function as an indictment of Nazism.
Country: GB
Technical: bw 123m
Director: Michael Powell
Cast: Eric Portman, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Glynis Johns, Niall MacGinnis
Synopsis:
German U-boat crewmen reckon with fur-trappers, Hutterite farmers, a cultured writer and Canadian reservist AWOL during their trek across Canada, but meet their match wherever they go.
Review:
Patronisingly propagandist in its portrait of the Nazis though it may be, this noted contribution to the war effort (Vaughan Williams score and all) does contain some literate confrontations between fascist and democrat, and boasts dramatic use of Canadian locations. The film, which was part government funded, set out to persuade the US to join the war, but was overtaken by events: Pearl Harbor happened two weeks after its general release. The episodic narrative and star cameos would have made it an ideal Royal Command Performance, but that would have to wait for A Matter of Life and Death (1946). As usual from P&P, the script showcases humour, sentiment, faith in the human spirit and imaginatively staged action, and the film certainly transcends its function as an indictment of Nazism.
