Secret Mission

1944
5.4| 1h34m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 30 August 1944 Released
Producted By: Marcel Hellman Productions
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

World War II drama in which a member of the French Resistance and three British agents undertake a hazardous mission to infiltrate a German HQ in search of vital information that could lead to the overthrow of the Nazis.

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Reviews

Dotbankey A lot of fun.
Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
JohnHowardReid Hugh Williams (Peter Garnett), Carla Lehmann (Michele de Carnot), James Mason (Roul de Carnot), Roland Culver (Red Gowan), Michael Wilding (Nobby Clark), Nancy Price (Violette), Percy Walsh (Fayolle), Anita Gombault (Estelle), David Page (René), Betty Warren (Mrs Nobby Clark), Nicholas Stuart (Captain Mackenzie), Brefni O'Rorke (Father Jouvet), Karel Stepanek (Major Lang), F.R. Wendhausen (General von Reichmann), John Salew (Captain Grune), Herbert Lom (medical officer), Beatrice Varley (Mrs Donkin), Yvonne Andre (Martine), Stewart Granger (Sub-Lieutenant Jackson).Director: HAROLD FRENCH. Screenplay: Anatole de Grunwald and Basil Bartlett — from an original story by Shaun Terence Young. Director of photography: Bernard Knowles. Special effects: Percy Day, Desmond Dickinson and John Mills. Music: Mischa Spoliansky. Art director: Carmen Dillon. Editor: E. B. Jarvis. Supervising art director: Paul Sheriff. Camera operator: Cyril Knowles. Still photographs: Jack Dooley. Production manager: Tom White. Assistant director: W.N. Boyle. Sound supervisor: A.W. Watkins. Sound recording: John Dennis. Western Electric Sound System. Made with the co-operation of the Ministry of Information, the War Office, and the Air Ministry. Producer: Marcel Hellman. A Marcel Hellman Production. An Excelsior Film.Copyright 4 January 1945 by English Films, Inc. U.S. release through English Films: 26 September 1944. No recorded New York opening. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 5 October 1942 (sic). Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 3 June 1943. 8,542 feet. 95 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Three officers and a private from British Intelligence are landed in Occupied France.COMMENT: A bizarre mixture of straight spy suspense and lowbrow comedy. Fortunately as the plot progresses, Michael Wilding's comic Cockney disappears for long stretches, allowing the more suspenseful elements to take hold in between the usual unlikely bouts of romance. On the whole, thrills win out. Good production values help. The photography is especially attractive. On the debit side, Mason's fans are not going to be happy either with their hero's tiny part or his ridiculous French accent. It's the far less personable Hugh Williams who steals most of the footage.
writers_reign For once I am in agreement with virtually everyone who has posted a comment here. It is, of course, impossible to view this film with the eyes and sensibilities of 1942, but against that we have all seen films made in and/or around this time which are NOT risible, In Which We Serve, The Way Ahead, spring to mind, so now we have to ask if the audiences who watched the two films cited also were able to watch Secret Mission with a straight face. In its favour it boasts a strong cast in the shape of James Mason, Hugh Williams, Michael Wilding, but then it negates that by making Mason and Wilding at least look totally inept and I can only suppose they were bound contractually to appear in it. It isn't even good social history as clearly no one behaved like this at any time or anywhere in history.
mark.waltz As if the writers took a "paint by number" book to create the screenplay, all the clichés of World War II "why we fight" stories are present in this tale of the French resistance. What makes it a bit more interesting is the presence of James Mason and Michael Wilding before them became Hollywood film stars. Mason gets a French accent (which sometimes sounds German) but Wilding gets to be totally British. Most of the French characters speak with a British dialect which makes Mason's accent more obvious. The only real interesting plot development concerns secret resistance members who obviously had slowly won the confidence of the Germans but were secretly working against them, making them enemies of their own people until that is exposed. Of course, you can't help but root for the resistance and cheer every time the Nazis are foiled and land back on their axis. It is obvious that this type of film cheered up the Allies enormously during the war and left them satisfied and motivated when they left the theater.
robert-temple-1 What a low level things sometimes fell to during the War! To think that such a worthless exercise as this could even be contemplated, much less filmed! James Mason is supposed to be a Frenchman named Raoul, but his French accent is something a ten year-old in a school play would find embarrassing. Thank goodness he dies before the end, none too soon! Michael Wilding is even more ridiculous. He plays someone who owns a cafe in Normandy, but he speaks with a Cockney accent and acts like a clown. As for Roland Culver, he ambles through this film as if he were on a golfing holiday, occasionally wrinkling his brow in order to suggest he may have thought of something, and once in a while uttering a platitude to remind us that this is a talkie (or perhaps to wake the audience up). What passes for a plot is about some jolly chaps going off to Normandy from Britain, to be beastly to the Germans and find out how to win the war by discovering where some things are which might be blown up, dontcha know. Their idea of hiding from the Germans is to leap behind a false bush and leave their legs showing. The dunderheads in helmets who rush by with fixed bayonets are unable to see legs showing behind false bushes, so that's all right, then. This film would disgrace the word 'travesty', if I were to attempt to use it, so I will use the word 'rubbish' instead.