Went the Day Well?

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Harry G Sep 23, 2018 Great WW2 drama. May 1942. The small English village of Bramley End is visited by a detachment of about 60 Royal Engineers. They are ostensibly there on an exercise but are in actual fact a detachment of German paratroopers, the advance guard of Hitler's invasion of England. Some of the villagers figure out their true identities but before they can do anything all the villagers are held prisoner by the Germans. Will the villagers be able to get word out of the threat? The fate of England depends on them. Great WW2 drama. Very realistic and topical for its time: at the time the threat of invasion was very real. Solid, plausible plot. Surprisingly dark and gritty - no Hollywood heroics, no easy win for the good guys, no empty casualty list on the Allied side, no characters that aren't expendable. It's all very real. Yes, it is ultimately a propaganda movie (it was made in 1942), so the Germans are shown as one-dimensional heartless fiends. This, and the rather badly staged, cavalierly acted, battle scenes, would be the only negatives. See more

Poe R Apr 14, 2018 Adapted from a Graham Greene short story, this British film (from Ealing Studios) presents a hypothetical for the home audience. What if the Germans successfully invaded a country village in the UK? The plot sees German soldiers well-trained in English and British culture arrive in Bramley End disguised as British soldiers needing to billet for a few days for some "exercises". Of course, they are welcomed by the locals - and particularly Leslie Banks, who plays a member of the Fifth Column (working for the Nazis) but who is nevertheless the local organiser for the town's defences. The Germans plan to set up some equipment that can disrupt communication networks in advance of a real invasion by their armed forces. After a few mistakes on the part of the Nazis (a chocolate bar with a German brand is discovered), the locals start to get suspicious - but it is too late and they are rounded up and held captive in the local Manor house. What unfolds then is a story of British pluck and gumption, as the motley assortment of locals seek to escape and alert those outside the town to their plight. Director Alberto Cavalcanti (a Brazilian who was regular for Ealing in the Forties, including participating in spooky horror anthology Dead of Night, 1945) handles everything with verve and there is nary a dull moment. Of course, the British community was probably beyond worrying that the Nazis would invade in 1942 (because the Battle of Britain had been won) but Hitler was not yet vanquished (nor the extent of his crimes revealed) when this film was released. As a paranoid fantasy of the first rank, even today it can produce a shudder when you imagine "what if". See more

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Went the Day Well?

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