Went the Day Well? (1942)

Director:

Alberto Cavalcanti

Writers:

John Dighton (writer)
Graham Greene (short story "The Lieutenant Died Last")

Release Date:

28 June 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller | War

Plot:

An English village is occupied by disguised German paratroopers as an advance post for a planned invasion.

Plot Keywords:

Village | WWII | Invasion | Billet | Punctuation In Title

Cast

Leslie Banks	...	Oliver Wilsford
C.V. France	...	The Vicar
Valerie Taylor	...	Nora Ashton
Marie Lohr	...	Mrs Fraser
Basil Sydney	...	Kommandant Orlter, alias Major Hammond
David Farrar	...	Lt. Jung, alias Lt. Maxwell
Harry Fowler	...	George Truscott, boy
Frank Lawton	...	Tom Sturry
Edward Rigby	...	Bill Purvis, the poacher
Elizabeth Allan	...	Peggy Pryde, [a Land Army Girl]
Thora Hird	...	Ivy Dawking, [a Land Army Girl]
Norman Pierce	...	Jim Sturry
Mervyn Johns	...	Charles Sims, the church warder
Johnnie Schofield	...	Joe Garbett, the policeman
Patricia Hayes	...	Daisy, the shop clerk

Also Known As:

48 Hours (USA)
They Came in Khaki (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:A

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Trivia:

Basil Sydney refused to re-record some dialogue, saying that he was a member of a religious sect whose members were forbidden to look upon their own image.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the soldier grabs George by the ears for opening an equipment box, a shadow on Mrs. Collins changes.

Quotes:

Charles Sims, the church warder: [looking at a grave marker for the dead German invaders] Yes, that 's the only bit of England they got!

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Excellent wartime thriller – rises way above it's propaganda roots

In war time England a group of Engineers are sent to a typically quiet and picturesque English village. However in reality they are an elite group of German soldiers with instructions to secure the village in preparation for a stealth German invasion in several days time. When one of the villagers suspects something is amiss the Germans seize the village and take the residents hostage. With the Home Guard dead the villagers plan to alert the outside world. I watched this film simply because it sounded very familiar to Higgins' The Eagle Has Landed and was curious to see how closely his book 'borrowed' from this. I expected this to be a hollow piece of propaganda given the period and the 'German threat in the homelands' warning to those back home. However this is vastly better than many of the war time movies that merely push an anti-Nazi message. This is actually exciting and is all the better for sudden moments of violence that are genuinely exciting. The heroes get killed! Little old ladies are forced into violent acts and sacrifice that I just didn't expect. One split second scene was so sudden and unexpected that I literally gasped! Of course it can't do this for the whole film and for the most part it is just entertaining – as if that's nothing! It lacks the violence of modern war films but the 1940's English atmosphere to the movie just makes the action and the tense feel even more pronounced. The cast are roundly good. The Germans start well but do give in to brutal stereotype before the film is very old. Leslie Banks is excellent, playing against type to great effect and the village cast are all very good including a few famous faces including Harry Fowler and, even more amusingly, Thora Hird. Overall I really enjoyed this. At it's heart it's an enjoyable propaganda piece with a thriller story. However it is stacked with sufficient moments of surprise or unexpected violence to make it stand out from the crowd.