Against the Wind (1948)

Director:

Charles Crichton

Writers:

J. Elder Wills (story)
Michael Pertwee (adaptation)

Release Date:

26 June 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Action | War | Drama

Tagline:

They played macabre jokes - lively but deadly.

Plot:

British agents engage in hazardous duty behind German lines.

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Traitor | Belgium | Parachute | British Intelligence

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Robert Beatty	...	Father Phillip Elliott
Simone Signoret	...	Michele Dennis
Jack Warner	...	Max Cronk
Gordon Jackson	...	Johnny Duncan
Paul Dupuis	...	Jacques Picquart
Gisèle Préville	...	Julie
John Slater	...	Emile Meyer
Peter Illing	...	Andrew
James Robertson Justice	...	Ackerman
Sybille Binder	...	Florence Malou
Hélène Hansen	...	Marie Berlot
Gilbert Davis	...	Commandant
Andrew Blackett	...	Frankie
Arthur Lawrence	...	Capt. Verreker
Eugene Deckers	...	Marcel von Hecke

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1989)

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Saboteurs, Traitors and Signoret

It's 1943 and a team of saboteurs, some British and some Belgian, are being trained to parachute into Belgium to cause as much damage to the Nazis as they can. After they've landed London learns that one is a traitor. Sound familiar? But this movie is very well done. The heroics are underplayed even though half of the team dies. A special mission they're given is carried out cleverly and reasonably realistically.

Among the team members is a young Simone Signoret. In my opinion, over the years she developed into an extraordinarily effective actor. Here, she reflects determination, anguish and a desire not to let herself become emotionally entangled. She discovers the identity of the traitor while they are alone in a farmhouse. He's shaving and she's on the transmitter getting a message from London. The message gives the traitor's name. She picks up her pistol, calls the guy's name so he faces her, and without hesitation shoots him. A very tidy, tough scene. She and a young team member played by Gordon Jackson eventually reach a romantic understanding. Because of Signoret's fierceness as an actor it was a little like watching a teen-age cocker spaniel falling in love with a young tigress.

The movie didn't do well when it was released. Some said that it was too close to the war years; nostalgia for courage and victory hadn't set in as it did during the Fifties.

Signoret was, in my opinion, one of the great actors of her time with a career that spanned over 40 years. Check out the span with her performance here -- young, hurt, determined and a great looker, with Room at the Top (1959) -- pushing 40, melancholy, sexy, knowing, with Madame Rosa (1977) -- tender up to a point and looking every inch plus more of her age. As she got older she put on weight and didn't seem to give a damn. I doubt if a surgeon's touch-up scalpel ever tightened her face. And Yves Montand was fascinated enough by her for their marriage to last 34 years until her death.