clanciai
The perfect state of emergency film, made during the war to prepare for the worst, with marvellous photography and eloquent staging - the suggestive scenes from inside the church lift the film to almost a Powell-Pressburger level. However, the story is absurd, this never happened and never could happen, and the so called Germans are pathetically unconvincing, even David Farrar and Leslie Banks. The story is Graham Greene's, and it almost touches Orwellian science fiction in its lack of credibility, no matter how realistically and well done it has been made. The women and children are the best actors, and the film is mainly worth seeing for their sake. Nevertheless, in spite of its absurdity, it's a remarkable film, and some scenes are unforgettable. The psychology of the drama of an emergency situation is very neatly realized, as first the overwhelming shock of the conquering attack, then the first resistance awakens to start with some poor tragically failed efforts, to eventually make a breakthrough and triumph. It's the whole story of the second world war in the nutshell of a small village in Britain.
happy_hangman
On the surface it's a propaganda piece, warning of Fifth Columnists in our midst, and reinforcing the notion that 'Careless talk costs lives' - as German soldiers masquerade as British servicemen to sabotage communications in advance of invasion. Set AFTER the war, when Germany has defeated (but filmed during that conflict, when that outcome was by no means certain), it employs every small-town caricature of British life you can think of, from the cheeky poacher and dotty shopkeeper to the snooty lady of the Manor, and it is these characters - anxious, terrified and uncertain - who give the story power. They aren't flying the flag to teach the beastly Bosch a lesson - they are fighting to survive. The comic shopkeeper taking an axe to her captor, then being bayonetted by one of his comrades is genuinely shocking, and many of the heroic scenes (the Lady of the Manor shielding kids from a grenade, for example) are throwaway skits, never allowing the or the uncertainty of the unfolding drama to subside (there being no big stars or particular hero at the heart of the tale we have no idea who will survive). For a low-budget Brit-flick of the era it is fairly brutal, and because that brutality is random and inflicted upon (and often BY) ordinary people, it becomes a very human story, and not a piece of patriotic jingoism. Interesting to see so many familiar actors, who would become such stalwarts of British telly and film in coming years: Jimmy 'Private Walker' Beck as a Cockney scamp, Thora Hird as a Land Girl, Patricia Hayes, Frank Lawton, Mervyn Johns, et al.
pingshar
Combine wooden acting, an improbably plot, a flashback spoiler and caricatures for the enemy, and what have you got? A boring movie.I'm not sure which is more annoying, the stilted ladies' voices, the deafening din of chirping birds (are British birds always louder than human voices?), the sneering German soldiers, or the absurdity of assembling a bunch of German soldiers in a British country village who, all but one, speak perfect British English, complete with British military trucks and gear.There is some brief mention of German parachutists being sighted earlier. So why isn't the military out searching for them? Yes, they are going to get tripped up, but do you seriously expect them to bring Austrian chocolate bars with them? If the purpose of this film was to make the British public suspicious of anything and everything, then it did a fine job. But if you are looking for an entertaining wartime movie set in England, you would be far better off with "Mrs. Miniver." Frankly, I've seen more interesting public service announcements. The only way someone could view this as a great movie is if they are British, and praising British war movies was a required.The prospect of a German invasion was real for awhile, primarily after Dunkirk. The British government prepared detailed written plans for what to do if the Germans invaded successfully -- and these plans were made into a detailed re-enactment documentary. The possibility of a single German dropping in was entirely real. Private Schulz tells the fictional story of what happened to one -- he was spotted almost the moment he walked into a pub.It was wartime, and it was OK to turn the German soldiers into detestable caricatures. But did they have to turn the British women into caricatures, too? The only one that seemed human was Nora.I'm glad this movie is still available, as a historical document. But it seems almost like amateur hour. Perhaps the best British filmmakers were in war service. Unless you are very interested in WWII or are British, you can skip this and you won't have missed a thing.
Wizard-8
"Went The Day Well" is a wartime movie that is kind of hard to find on this side of the Atlantic. It took me some searching to find it, but it was worth the effort. Although this movie didn't have the budget of wartime movies coming from Hollywood, it's compensated by some good scripting and direction. Unlike some movies that portrayed the enemy as buffoons, the enemy here is dead serious, killing a number of the villagers in the movie. In fact, even though the movie opens with a prologue that more or less informs the audience that the villagers will prevail at the end, the struggle is so long and hard that even then you'll wonder if the villagers will indeed win the conflict. But the movie isn't COMPLETELY serious - there are occasional touches of humor that prevent the movie from becoming too bleak. A movie well worth your time.
AD
