Bon Voyage (1944)

A young Scottish RAF gunner is debriefed by French officials about his escape from occupied territory, and in particular one person who may or may not have been a German agent.

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Star:

John Blythe

Cast

Cast overview:
John Blythe	...	RAF Sgt. John Dougall

Storyline

A young Scottish RAF gunner is debriefed by French officials about his escape from occupied territory, and in particular one person who may or may not have been a German agent.

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Plot Keywords:

raf | gunner | german agent | escape | two word title | 

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Genres:

Short | War

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Certificate:

TV-G

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

French English

Release Date:

June 1944 (Portugal)

Also Known As:

Gute Reise

Filming Locations:

Welwyn Studios, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ministry of Information,Phoenix

Technical Specs

Runtime:

26 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Apart from John Blythe all the other actors in this film were French, and were simply credited as "The Molière Players" in order to protect their families from the Nazis.

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Quotes

RAF Sgt. John Dougall: Au revoir, Mademoiselle. Thanks for everything. I very much hope we'll meet again.
Jeanne: Adieu, RAF, Bon Voyage.

User Reviews

Hitchcock en Francais

"Bon Voyage" was one of two short French language propaganda films made by Alfred Hitchcock for the British Ministry of Information in 1944, the other being "Aventure Malgache". The film depicts the escape of a downed Royal Air Force air gunner through German-occupied France, with the assistance of Resistance fighters. The purpose was presumably to inform French exiles in Britain and America, and those living in territory controlled by the Free French Government, of the work being done, and the sacrifices being made, by their compatriots in the Resistance.

The film is very short, at only 26 minutes long, and today is likely to be principally of interest to Hitchcock completists. It does, however, have its points of interest, notably its use of multiple viewpoints of the same events, a technique that looks forward to later films such as Kurosawa's "Rashomon". We see the airman being debriefed by a Free French intelligence officer in London and quickly realise that the intelligence officer knows things about the escape that the young man himself is unaware of, especially that he has been an unwitting pawn in a German scheme for getting information to one of their agents in Britain. Another theme of the film is a warning to the French to be on their guard against the dirty tricks of the Germans and their Vichy French collaborators.

"Bon Voyage" was presumably intended principally as a propaganda film rather than as dramatic entertainment; had it been intended as the latter, it would have needed to have been at least three times as long. This is the reason why I have not awarded it a mark out of ten.