This unusual but typically low-key product from Ealing Studios (best-known for a series of classic comedies made between 1946-1955) is a semi-documentary depiction of the saboteur training undergone by a band of hand-picked civilians and their subsequent missions behind enemy lines; therefore, in both theme and quality, it anticipates the later, more acclaimed Hollywood offering DECISION BEFORE DAWN (1951) which, incidentally, I just caught up with a couple of weeks ago. The cast is mostly made up of the usual familiar British faces (James Robertson Justice, Gordon Jackson, Jack Warner, Robert Beatty, etc.) but 2 major roles are, very effectively, portrayed respectively by French and Canadian actors: Simone Signoret (appearing in her first English-speaking film when on the verge of attaining stardom on her home ground) and Paul Dupuis. Being in this company, there cannot fail to be lighter moments especially during an early sequence where our heroes are being shown the tools of their trade i.e. booby-trapped dead rats, manure and even sausages! among the continuous perils and occasional tragedies they have to face away from home (including being forced to cold-bloodedly execute a compromised companion and swallow the omnipresent suicide pill to escape torture at the enemy's hands).
21 Reviews
Freedom isn't free
Chase_Witherspoon16 March 2013
Surprisingly tense account of allied forces operating behind enemy lines in WWII France, infiltrating enemy strongholds and generally destabilising the occupation in collaboration with resistance fighters. Canadian Robert Beatty and Scot Gordon Jackson are the principals protagonists, teaming up with Simone Signoret in an elaborate game of cross and double cross, evading the Germans while they attempt to rescue one of their own.
Great cast with Jack Warner as the convivial commando (belying his autumn age), while Jackson and Beatty are the more intense agents, the former engaging in a rather unlikely romance with Signoret's character, herself a highly capable spy and willing to pull the trigger as required. Burly JRJ is the puppet master overseeing the covert operations, while Paul Dupuis has a memorable role as a turncoat doing everything he can to aid and abet the allied rearguard.
There's two or three very memorable moments in this film, and a relative surfeit of violence for its late-forties vintage - the Signoret-Warner scene is quite brutal and unexpected. Good use of sets and exteriors, and while there's a few clichés, I found it quite an addictive film that holds the attention pretty well.
Great cast with Jack Warner as the convivial commando (belying his autumn age), while Jackson and Beatty are the more intense agents, the former engaging in a rather unlikely romance with Signoret's character, herself a highly capable spy and willing to pull the trigger as required. Burly JRJ is the puppet master overseeing the covert operations, while Paul Dupuis has a memorable role as a turncoat doing everything he can to aid and abet the allied rearguard.
There's two or three very memorable moments in this film, and a relative surfeit of violence for its late-forties vintage - the Signoret-Warner scene is quite brutal and unexpected. Good use of sets and exteriors, and while there's a few clichés, I found it quite an addictive film that holds the attention pretty well.
Blowing stuff up in Belgium
timwestcott9 November 2019
Two years before Odette and a decade before Carve her Name with Pride, this film imagines a Special Operations Executive mission in Belgium. The SOE is not identified by name, and seems to be operating from a room inside the Natural History Museum instead of an office building on Baker Street, but many of the other elements are there - training in a country house, techniques of maintaining cover while on mission, and parachute jumps.
There is even a workshop devising clever ways of concealing explosives - including dead rats and horse manure. Interesting to see so soon after the war what aspects of SOE, still now cloaked in secrecy more than half a century later, were seemingly well known. The workshop is also clearly a cinematic ancestor of Q's gadget factory in the Bond movies.
One of the true to life aspects of this well scripted and directed (by Charles Crichton, better known for comedies The Lavender Hill Mob and The Titchfield Thunderbolt) film is the danger of being an agent in occupied Europe. Networks are vulnerable to betrayal (and one of the group we are introduced to in training turns out to be passing secrets to the Germans via an Irish contact) and the Gestapo are everywhere. People die, quite a lot of them, and suddenly. There is some dubious licence (Simone Signoret as Michèle operates a radio hidden in a sewing machine, which surely would have been vulnerable to detection, while John Slater as Emile has plastic surgery so effective his wife does not recognise him), but the story, while the characters and their mission are fictitious, seems to be informed by recent experience of the secret world.
It is also ironic and poignant, in times of Brexit, to see again the common purpose of a bunch of foreigners in wartime England and the mortal risks they are prepared to take to liberate Europe from the Nazis. The women take roles equally as important as the men; which Gordon Jackson's character, who is drafted in from the explosive factory, is a bit stuffy about. Robert Beatty plays Father Elliot, a French-Canadian Catholic priest who is sent in to Belgium liberate an agent called Andrew (played by the Austrian actor Peter Illing) who has been caught after blowing up an archive office. James Robertson Justice, who would later play a similar role in The Guns of Navarone, is the mastermind in the museum back in London.
His description of what his group does is as good a description of SOE as you get in movies portraying its activities: 'We collect all kinds of queer fish in this organisation, people who would never be taken for saboteurs. We send them back to school to learn all the things they were thrashed for - cheating and deceiving, pretending to be everything they are not. Playing rough games and dirty tricks.' Maurice Buckmaster, head of SOE in France who appears at the beginning of Odette, could hardly have put it better.
The dramatic licence of the conclusion stretches credibility a bit far, and the constant background music gets a bit overpowering at times. But the strong cast of actors get well developed and believable characters to work with and Against the Wind is one of the better examples of its genre, even though it is one of the first.
Good Spy Picture
GManfred26 October 2017
I am a great fan of WWII movies, especially the ones concerning the resistance. To me, there is nothing better than a good film about the underground - British, Dutch, French, whatever, and "Against The Wind" is a good one. It takes a while to get going; there are many scenes setting up the planned rescue in Belgium and some time is spent on character development. A team of five are in the plan, and, of course, one is a double agent working for the Nazis.
As in many such movies, the Nazis are slow-witted bumblers, which always adds to my enjoyment even if a caricature. The action here is fast-paced and is in the second half of the picture and is one reason for my rating. The other reason is Simone Signoret, who I consider the best actress to ever grace the silver screen. She is aided and abetted by an able cast including Robert Beatty, Jack Warner and Gordon Jackson. If you are a fan of spy movies you should catch this one.
As in many such movies, the Nazis are slow-witted bumblers, which always adds to my enjoyment even if a caricature. The action here is fast-paced and is in the second half of the picture and is one reason for my rating. The other reason is Simone Signoret, who I consider the best actress to ever grace the silver screen. She is aided and abetted by an able cast including Robert Beatty, Jack Warner and Gordon Jackson. If you are a fan of spy movies you should catch this one.
Good in parts; very average in others
michael-dixon2213 September 2010
First the good bits and that mainly centres around Simone Signoret, who as usual is excellent. But this poses a problem, for the "love-affair" of the film, which involves her and a young Gordon Jackson who looks and acts as though he had never been out of Cowdenbeath. So hardly the material to interest a sophisticated European lady as played by Ms. Signoret. Not good casting, indeed one of the more ridiculous romantic combinations in the history of motion pictures.
That being said the film, in black and white, has some atmosphere, tension and you feel that you are there, which is important. The rather bizarre casting continues, however, with the unlikely scenario of a rather elderly Jack Warner playing the part of a commando. Still if he was still an active policeman at 80 years of age in Dixon of Dock Green , who are we to argue with his credentials. In addition he is part of the two most memorable scenes in the film, one when he meets the Irish girl working for the Germans and secondly when he has to contend with a very angry Ms. Signoret holding a pistol.
James Robertson Justice is, as always, very believable as the organiser of the missions working from base and there are some good supporting actors who play around his character. For some reason the part played by John Slater irritated me from start to finish, though the rest of the cast, including Robert Beatty, were sound if a touch wooden.
I would summarise this film as a pleasant and nostalgic way to spend a rainy afternoon and if it is on sale for around £5 then worth a look.
That being said the film, in black and white, has some atmosphere, tension and you feel that you are there, which is important. The rather bizarre casting continues, however, with the unlikely scenario of a rather elderly Jack Warner playing the part of a commando. Still if he was still an active policeman at 80 years of age in Dixon of Dock Green , who are we to argue with his credentials. In addition he is part of the two most memorable scenes in the film, one when he meets the Irish girl working for the Germans and secondly when he has to contend with a very angry Ms. Signoret holding a pistol.
James Robertson Justice is, as always, very believable as the organiser of the missions working from base and there are some good supporting actors who play around his character. For some reason the part played by John Slater irritated me from start to finish, though the rest of the cast, including Robert Beatty, were sound if a touch wooden.
I would summarise this film as a pleasant and nostalgic way to spend a rainy afternoon and if it is on sale for around £5 then worth a look.
Great, Gritty war film
donrose-238961 July 2019
Adventure in wartime Belgium, good cast, plodding plot
snaunton20 October 2001
In 1943 a miscellaneous group of women and men of several nationalities prepare in London to be parachuted into Belgium. They are to lead sabotage operations against the occupying German forces. A government office is destroyed, a traitor is discovered, one of their number is captured and rescued, several of them die, two fall in love.
This is a classic British WWII adventure, exploiting the potential for romance of the Special Operations Executive, notwithstanding its marginal affect on the conduct of the war. The acting is good, with Simone Signoret very beautiful and suitably soulful, Gordon Jackson playing a characteristically shaky personality and Robert Beatty in a fine, solid role as the saboteur-priest. James Robertson-Justice, of course, plays himself, as always. The plot is a disappointment. The story line does not appear clearly until the second half of the film, after a series of scenes in which the members of the team are assembled and there is a series of half-hearted attempts to establish their backgrounds and motivation. The amateurishness reinforces a certain stereotype of the British people and the lamentable lack of security awareness makes one cringe. Despite the drawbacks, this film is well done and a pleasure to watch.
This is a classic British WWII adventure, exploiting the potential for romance of the Special Operations Executive, notwithstanding its marginal affect on the conduct of the war. The acting is good, with Simone Signoret very beautiful and suitably soulful, Gordon Jackson playing a characteristically shaky personality and Robert Beatty in a fine, solid role as the saboteur-priest. James Robertson-Justice, of course, plays himself, as always. The plot is a disappointment. The story line does not appear clearly until the second half of the film, after a series of scenes in which the members of the team are assembled and there is a series of half-hearted attempts to establish their backgrounds and motivation. The amateurishness reinforces a certain stereotype of the British people and the lamentable lack of security awareness makes one cringe. Despite the drawbacks, this film is well done and a pleasure to watch.
Flailing and Surviving
boblipton25 August 2017
I think it was Michael Palin who wanted to make a movie in which he ran over someone with a steamroller and Charles Crichton who wanted to make a movie in which the principals got away to South America home free. It doesn't apply to this movie, which is an Ealing movie, but not a comedy, yet shows the care and excellence that Michael Balcon applied to the movies he produced.
It starts out at a spy training center in England, run by a seemingly amiable John Robertson Justice. The four top "students" with which this movie concerns itself are Robert Beatty, Simone Signoret, Jack Warner and Gordon Jackson. Beatty, a priest, is sent out earlier. When a rescue is needed, the others follow. However, things go wrong and matters become messy.
All of the actors go about things as stoically as they can, but their characters' emotions keep leaking through. The movie keeps throwing up tense moments, some of which are solved heroically, some tragically and some comically. It's a first class movie in all departments, even if the subject has grown commonplace in the aftermath of the Cold War.
It starts out at a spy training center in England, run by a seemingly amiable John Robertson Justice. The four top "students" with which this movie concerns itself are Robert Beatty, Simone Signoret, Jack Warner and Gordon Jackson. Beatty, a priest, is sent out earlier. When a rescue is needed, the others follow. However, things go wrong and matters become messy.
All of the actors go about things as stoically as they can, but their characters' emotions keep leaking through. The movie keeps throwing up tense moments, some of which are solved heroically, some tragically and some comically. It's a first class movie in all departments, even if the subject has grown commonplace in the aftermath of the Cold War.
Little-known but rewarding
Leofwine_draca18 March 2020
Warning: Spoilers
AGAINST THE WIND is an all but forgotten slice of WW2 adventure, with a quartet of resistance fighters heading into occupied France in order to help battle the Nazis. The usual complications arise from developing relationships between the agents, along with the unwelcome realisation that at least one is a traitor. The biggest surprise is that this straight-laced drama is from Ealing Studios and director Charles Crichton. It's an appropriately murky affair, with character work in the first half giving way to espionage thrills in the second, brought to life by a game cast including Jack Warner, Simone Signoret and Gordon Jackson.
Good second half
malcolmgsw5 December 2020
The first half is a bit on the slow side but the second half makes up for it.Simone Signoret gives a marvelous performance.Jack Warner is effectively cast against type,which was not to happen again.Gordon Jackson is an unlikely agent.I doubt that an agent who could not speak French fluently,would have been chosen to be dropped into Occupied Europe.
Blow Out
writers_reign28 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I learned as a child - when I was taken to see them regularly by my parents - not to expect too much from British films so when I bought this DVD on the strength of Simone Signoret's star billing I was prepared to be disappointed and the film didn't let me down. Whoever cast Gordon Jackson as Signoret's 'love interest' deserves some kind of ineptitude Award; it's a bit like casting Alain Delon and Diana Dors as lovers. Lots of the usual suspects are wheeled out; Jack Warner, John Slater, James Robertson Justice, Robert Beatty et al but Charlie Chrichton is just not an 'action' director and this has to rank as one of the most woeful entries on Ealing's distinguished roster.
Saboteurs, Traitors and Signoret
Terrell-426 July 2004
Warning: Spoilers
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.
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.
Horse dung in the wind
AAdaSC4 April 2011
A group of uninteresting people are sent into Belgium to blow up a records office and rescue some bloke from prison. Can they succeed?
Unfortunately, there is no-one in the cast that anyone can identify with who is in the film for long enough. Gordon Jackson is dreadfully annoying as "Johnny", the schoolboy explosives expert who is out of his depth. Paul Dupuis is the best of the cast as "Picquart", the undercover Gestapo officer who sticks his neck out to help the very annoying Gordon Jackson. Simone Signoret is OK as "Michele" the radio operator but this role could equally have been played by Gisele Preville who played "Julie".
Indeed the film has 3 good sections that stick in the mind. One is the shot of "Julie" lying in the field after her parachute jump, staring at the sky and obviously very dead. It's the most shocking image from the film. The second is the scene where "Michele" discovers that her colleague is a traitor while they are sharing a quiet moment in their hideout. And the third is the scene where "Picquart" is trapped in his Nazi office and has to act quickly. That's it. Most of the rest of the film is dull and unengaging. It takes an hour or so before anything of interest happens.
A mention goes to Jack Warner as "Max". How on earth did England win a war with lard buckets like him in the army. What a heffalump! And what is the romance between "Michele" and "Johnny" all about? A complete nonsense. There are a few interesting sections but the film disappoints overall.
Unfortunately, there is no-one in the cast that anyone can identify with who is in the film for long enough. Gordon Jackson is dreadfully annoying as "Johnny", the schoolboy explosives expert who is out of his depth. Paul Dupuis is the best of the cast as "Picquart", the undercover Gestapo officer who sticks his neck out to help the very annoying Gordon Jackson. Simone Signoret is OK as "Michele" the radio operator but this role could equally have been played by Gisele Preville who played "Julie".
Indeed the film has 3 good sections that stick in the mind. One is the shot of "Julie" lying in the field after her parachute jump, staring at the sky and obviously very dead. It's the most shocking image from the film. The second is the scene where "Michele" discovers that her colleague is a traitor while they are sharing a quiet moment in their hideout. And the third is the scene where "Picquart" is trapped in his Nazi office and has to act quickly. That's it. Most of the rest of the film is dull and unengaging. It takes an hour or so before anything of interest happens.
A mention goes to Jack Warner as "Max". How on earth did England win a war with lard buckets like him in the army. What a heffalump! And what is the romance between "Michele" and "Johnny" all about? A complete nonsense. There are a few interesting sections but the film disappoints overall.
Effective war drama from UK
searchanddestroy-123 June 2017
I did not know this film about French Belgian resistance army. I did not know either that Chuck Crichton made such non comedy features, and I am not disappointed at all. And Simone Signoret gives here one of the three French partisan character she had - and maybe more, I don't exactly know - in her career. Before Jean-Pierre Melville's ARMEE DES OMBRES and René Clément's LE JOUR ET L'HEURE. She is awesome here and I don't understand the reviews against this movie. I just discover it after decades of film passion. Later is better than never.
Chalk and cheese!
brogmiller28 May 2021
This lamentable and lamely directed opus from 1948 is solely of interest in that it marks the first English speaking role of lovely Simone Signoret. Luckily for her and for us this same year saw the release of 'Dédée d'Anvers' which put her firmly on the map. Mlle Signoret has been coupled with some charismatic leading men in her time but Gordon Jackson is not one of them.
I am truly surprised (or perhaps I shouldn't be) that this mediocre fare has attracted mainly positive reviews. In fact one reviewer has actually gone so far as to suggest that it sits honourably with Melville's classic 'Army of Shadows'. That is like comparing a Reliant Robin with a Rolls-Royce!
Oh well, fools give you reasons, wise men never try.
I am truly surprised (or perhaps I shouldn't be) that this mediocre fare has attracted mainly positive reviews. In fact one reviewer has actually gone so far as to suggest that it sits honourably with Melville's classic 'Army of Shadows'. That is like comparing a Reliant Robin with a Rolls-Royce!
Oh well, fools give you reasons, wise men never try.
Hugely influential,superbly shot,Mlle Signoret a revelation.
ianlouisiana23 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This seminal British war film has been "hommaged" a thousand times in the last sixty years from "Charlotte Gray" to "'Allo,'Allo !" via Where Eagles Dare" but despite countless copies and lampoons it has retained its power .Fast paced and seeming shorter than its 92 minutes,"Against The Wind" is shot in crisp black and white by Lionel Banes . From the opening sequence depicting priest Mr R.Beatty walking into the Imperial Institute a number of beautiful interior shots seamlessly meld into the introduction of the undoubted star of the piece Miss Simone Signoret.It is she on whom the camera lingers for just that extra second.She takes Mr Beatty to the office of S.O.E. boss Mr J.R. Justice.Slimmer and more hirsute he is still a nascent Sir Lancelot Spratt,outwardly irascible,inwardly compassionate. He briefs Beatty on his plan to parachute a group of saboteurs into occupied Belgium.As the story progresses we are introduced to the other members of the team as they go through their training. Miss Signoret has recently had tragedy in her personal life and wants to go into action to make amends.Forbidden from doing so by Mr Justice who rightly questions her motives ,she is drinking heavily in a nearby pub when she is joined by Mr J.Warner,one of the group in training. This is a key scene in the film and Miss Signoret is extraordinary in it as the camera closes in on her face and we see anger and determination turn to despair.Mr Warner,too often dismissed as a lightweight,is first class in support here. However she eventually gets her wish and joins Mr Warner and his comrades on their mission. Just as they take off Warner is revealed as a traitor but it is too late to call them back and it is not until they are hiding up with the Resistance that Miss Signoret as wireless operator gets the message that he is a spy.Without any hesitation she shoots him dead as he shaves at the sink. Briefed to bust an important S.O.E. operative from jail the team snatch him from a train in a brilliantly handled sequence that has been often imitated but never bettered. There is a splendid vehicle chase through narrow streets congested with cattle,beer drays and a religious procession.This last has been particularly well cut in Eisenstein fashion without being an obvious copy. Perennial TV favourites Mr J.Slater and Mr G.Jackson make a strong impression in smaller roles but it is Miss Signoret's strength and beauty that commands the attention. "Against the wind " is a film that deserves to be better - known. Indeed you may think you have seen it before,but you probably haven't. But I can guarantee you a lot of other film directors have.
war film soe specialists
geoffholman200327 May 2005
this is an excellent film of the mid Ealing period Critchton's tight direction and Bridgewaters music intertwined with each characters role in the film is truly marvellous! as time has passed all but one of the cast members have died, with the exception of Giselle Preville who plays Julie the wireless operator. i have watched this film many times and cannot get enough of the opening score by Bridgewater. i throughly recommend this film as an all time Ealing great, although many Ealing aficionados will probably not agree, as it received a very Luke warm reception in 1948 possibly due to public tiredness of all things to do with war.
True to its portrayal
david.clarke4 October 2003
Despite the usual budgetary restrictions, this manages to convey a sense of the danger and great sacrifice made by these brave people who fought for our freedom. Charles Crichton brings out the human story rather than the all-action tale of some movies. Scenes with John Slater visiting his wife seems slightly corny now, but then must have seemed so close to events (just 3 years after the end of WW2). And the outcome later makes it all the more poignant. I thought a movie like this would be good to show in schools, as a part of history lesson. I love all those character actors they were part of my childhood, and they were such real actors and people. (Take note Arnold, et al) And I still haven't got over Jack Warner's Max (our own Dixon of Dock green) who would have adam 'n' eved it!
"Everything here blows up."
mark.waltz21 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This exciting post war drama is another example of the technical excellence of the British cinema, dealing with the activities of espionage agents during the war and the variety of personalities involved in the destruction of fascism. An amazingly photographed training scene (over a French song named "Marietta") has the trainees going through their various activities as of this was a musical number in a revue. An instructor speaks of how to handle serious situations as they are dramatized on screen, describing these situations without sentiment and only duty as a motive. Between the musical interlude and the training session, the first twenty minutes provides enough excitement to immediately grab your attention.
Then there's the cast, Robert Beatty as a priest with an espionage past, arriving at the museum used as the spy headquarters, finding out that he has been unexpectedly expected, Simone Signoret as a beautiful but very serious and troubled agent, James Robertson Justice as the museum curator with his own secret, and Jack Warner and Gordon Jackson as other prominent members of the team. The spy ring has several members who are very anti-Nazi even though they seem to be emulating the stereotypical Nazis we've all come to love to hate in these movies.
"We have friends even in the Gestapo" Justice says, giving the audience a glimpse into the possibilities of how the third Reich was aided into destruction from within and showing the sacrifice that seeming loyal Germans made to overthrow the crazy government. One scene with Signoret learning about various tools of destruction that is straight out of James Bond. Then there is the offer of suicide tablets for the spies "just in case" that is very haunting.
The strength of this movie isn't just about the individual performances and technical brilliance, but the passions of each of the characters in how devoted they are to their mission and the secrets of their own lives, including one of the spies who must hide his identity after having plastic surgery and seeing his own wife who has no idea of who he is. Signoret, emulating a younger Dietrich, is quite haunting, proving that she has what it takes to make a difference in a man's world, and Beatty must confront as a priest the biblical laws he must break to do his job. I'm adding this one to the list of best war films, increasing it under espionage dramas and films made about the war after the war was over. This reminds the audience that just because a war is over, the battles caused in that war are far from over.
Then there's the cast, Robert Beatty as a priest with an espionage past, arriving at the museum used as the spy headquarters, finding out that he has been unexpectedly expected, Simone Signoret as a beautiful but very serious and troubled agent, James Robertson Justice as the museum curator with his own secret, and Jack Warner and Gordon Jackson as other prominent members of the team. The spy ring has several members who are very anti-Nazi even though they seem to be emulating the stereotypical Nazis we've all come to love to hate in these movies.
"We have friends even in the Gestapo" Justice says, giving the audience a glimpse into the possibilities of how the third Reich was aided into destruction from within and showing the sacrifice that seeming loyal Germans made to overthrow the crazy government. One scene with Signoret learning about various tools of destruction that is straight out of James Bond. Then there is the offer of suicide tablets for the spies "just in case" that is very haunting.
The strength of this movie isn't just about the individual performances and technical brilliance, but the passions of each of the characters in how devoted they are to their mission and the secrets of their own lives, including one of the spies who must hide his identity after having plastic surgery and seeing his own wife who has no idea of who he is. Signoret, emulating a younger Dietrich, is quite haunting, proving that she has what it takes to make a difference in a man's world, and Beatty must confront as a priest the biblical laws he must break to do his job. I'm adding this one to the list of best war films, increasing it under espionage dramas and films made about the war after the war was over. This reminds the audience that just because a war is over, the battles caused in that war are far from over.
I Loved This Film and Can't Understand Why Everybody Else Didn't as Well
joe-pearce-126 January 2019
I got this as one of a number of recent acquisitions and kept putting off watching it because war films have to be very good to hold my interest and I wasn't all that interested in a British war film that would be starring Simone Signoret and Robert Beatty, expecting some kind of wartime mishmash of a love story accompanied by London blackouts. Boy, was I wrong! I found this an absolutely first-rate film all the way, and I cannot understand some of the negative reviews seen here, unless they are mainly from younger reviewers who want shoot-'em-up action before all else. And several of the reviews don't even get the story right while still nastily including 'spoilers' (one of which does not include a warning). This has to be just about the earliest film to include a crash course in the techniques of wartime infiltration and espionage, and we are given full measure of this by being walked through various training and laboratory facilities and seeing just how ingenious some of these things are and just how conscienceless even potential heroes are expected to be. The laboratory part of it, much involved in explosives of kinds most normal and upstanding people can't even imagine, is reminiscent of later tours through the latest inventions 007 will be given and made familiar with in order to accomplish his own missions. And Peter Illing makes a marvelous and quite lengthy speech to the potential spies and infiltrators, the main point of which is that they must never let their emotions interfere with their duty - which is, of course, to accomplish the mission and/or avoid being caught. If you have to sacrifice a comrade, even a good friend, you do so, because by doing so you will save many more lives than his or hers. And you WILL take that suicide pill if you are caught; your death is as unimportant as your friend's as long as the mission is served. That's a rather heady set of instructions to hear back in 1948, when Great Britain and all the rest of Europe were but three years' distant from the worst and most humanly costly war in history. And that's just for a start. In the course of the film, you will see how this training plays out, and in some cases, the least-likely characters, portrayed by the least-likely actors (considering stardom or sympathetic characterizations) are so suddenly gone from the scene or so brutally betrayed by circumstances that it is a considerable shock to the viewer to even realize what is going on before their eyes. I agree with a couple of reviewers that the Signoret-Gordon Jackson romance seems unrealistic, but that is not Jackson's fault (he is always an excellent actor), just a mistake of casting. Yet there is only two years' difference in their ages, but Signoret seems so much more mature. But when considering such duos, it is well to remember that Margaret Leighton was six years older than Laurence Harvey, and that Elizabeth Taylor, while four years younger than Eddie Fisher, was about a thousand years older than he was
in experience. I mention these mundane comparisons to show that surely such pairings were not necessarily so unusual, maybe especially so in wartime, as to invalidate their inclusion in this particular storyline. Anyway, there was not a performance in the film that I didn't consider somewhere between excellent and superb, most especially those of Signoret, Illing, Beatty, Warner and Justice (what actor ever had more easy authority than Mr. Justice?). As for the reviewer who has up to this moment scored an amazing 0 - 21 where agreements with his assessment of the film are concerned, it should be noted that Mr. Warner, 54 at the time the film was made, could easily have been a decade younger in his character, and that being overweight (Mr. Warner was always overweight) is not necessarily an impediment to being in overall excellent physical condition. After all, he didn't even make his first movie until he was 48, stuck around in films for another 35 years, had a hit TV series wherein he played a policeman until he was just past 80 years of age, and died at 85. I think he was in good enough shape to be a soldier during World War Two, don't you? (Another similarly porky fellow, Ernest Borgnine, spent ten years in the U.S. Navy, lived to be 95, and made five films in the last year of his life!) All in all, I thought this a superb film, and I can't imagine why I never heard of it before recently picking it up.
Walk, Don't Run
richardchatten5 December 2020
People die with their eyes open and commit suicide and a traitor is ruthlessly despatched in this sombre Ealing resistance drama about a group of saboteurs parachuted into occupied Belgium, which sits honourably with Jean-Pierre Melville's 'L'Armee des Ombres' twenty years later. Melville almost certainly saw it and if so it would be interesting to know what he had to say about it.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
