One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

"B. for Bertie crashed on Sunday morning. 0431. But our story starts some fifteen hours earlier......."

With that simple statement Powell and Pressburger take us on another journey into cinema. A group of wise-cracking RAF crewmen take off on a routine bombing flight. The plane is shot and the crew manage to parachute off the before the plane stalls and crashes.

On the ground the men (minus the pilot) gather together. They first encounter a trio of children who ask "have you come to invade Holland?" The men are taken to the adults who debate about what to do with them.

Truly inventive film is well thought-out and photographed. Interest never wavers. What could have been a run-of-the-mill war film was skillfully crafted into a film of humanity in the midst of inhumanity.

Shameless Laudations!

Once again the Archers come through with a very entertaining picture. I think the film would be much more pertinent to, and was probably aimed at, WWII British audiences, but it is nevertheless top quality motion picture entertainment for either side of the Atlantic.

Although it starts out in a different vein than most - A British bomber flying unmanned until it crashes - there is surprisingly little action for a war picture and is mainly a character study about the airmen who bailed out of her. All parts are professionally done, especially Bernard Miles' and Godfrey Tearle's, and special mention must go to Googie Withers who labored in movies all those years with a funny name. It is she who takes acting honors in this one as the 'contact' posing as a Nazi sympathizer.

The World War II conflict in the European theater has provided an endless supply of thrilling and exciting movies with the Nazis as the natural 'bad guys', and here is another. Although they were not all as dim-witted as portrayed in movies, it is always fun to watch them come out on the short end. This film is well worth your time whether you are a war movie buff or not.

"...one of our aircraft is missing ..." is a well-cast and well-written piece from Powell and Pressburger, key film makers in 1940s Britain.

The crew of B for Bertie find themselves lost in enemy territory and have to depend on the resources of others to get them to safety. The crew are played by some of the best actors of the time: Godfrey Tearle as the upper-class rear gunner; Eric Portman as the bluff Yorkshire co-pilot; Hugh Williams (father of 1970s actor Simon) as the refined navigator; Bernard Miles - better than usual - as the front gunner; High Burden as the pilot; and Emrys Jones as the Welsh sportsman who became the radio operator.

In support are Googie Withers, P&P regular Pamela Brown, Joyce Redman, Robert Helpmann (as the quisling), Alec Clunes (father of Martin) as the church organist, and Peter Ustinov (in his film debut) as the priest.

This film has been done as a drama-documentary so has a very realistic feel and look, pulling the viewer right into the action alongside the aircraft crew. It is less atmospheric than the 30s P&P films featuring Conrad Veidt and perhaps represented a more grounded style to their work before their Technicolor fantasies of the late 40s.

More than half a century after the happening, for anyone who still can't get enough of World War II, this is a movie not to be missed.

It tells the story of what happens to an RAF crew on a bombing mission over Europe. That story is told with skill and even though the movie was made clear back in 1942, its technical aspects still hold up beyond the millennium (something which cannot be said for many World War II movies that were made during, and even after, the happening). All credit for this movie belongs to the brilliant British (well, one Brit and one Hungarian by birth) writing- producing-directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

Two other movies in this genre that immediately come to mind and which likewise should not be missed by any World War II "junkie," are: "Command Decision" (1948) and "Twelve O'Clock High" (1949). The only difference(s) between these latter two and the one being reviewed are that the latter two are American movies (set in England) while "Aircraft" is a British effort (set in England and, well, Europe). Also, unlike "Aircraft," which was made during the height of the war, these latter two were made a few years following the war's conclusion.

Other than those quite minor differences, all three of these movies belong atop any World War IIite's must-see list.

Director Michael Powell's World War II-drama is a clever reworking of his "The 49th Parallel" (1941), a story of six German sailors marooned in Canada after their submarine is destroyed; the movie chronicles their failed attempt to cross over into then-neutral America. This time, in "One of Our Aircraft...," the heroes are six members of a British RAF bombing crew. We watch as they take off for the Continent and sample their conversation. However, after dropping their bombs on a Stuttgart industrial plant, their Wellington aircraft suffers a direct hit from German flak. The crippled plane flies as far as Nazi-occupied Holland before the crew decide to bail. The rest of the film chronicles their efforts to return to England, assisted by various Dutch civilians.

"One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" is Powell's wartime love letter to the Netherlands. The film opens with a close-up of a document, signed by the Dutch government-in-exile, informing us of the names of Dutch citizens who were executed for insurrection against Germany's Occupation - e.g., helping downed Allied fliers return to England. This visual device, the close-up of official paperwork, is repeated throughout the film. At certain intervals between episodes, Powell fills the screen with other documents and bureaucratic red tape - mostly applications to the Nazis, requesting permits to attend churches and soccer matches or to visit relatives in other villages. Off-screen, we hear the disgruntled commentary of a German Commandant as he stamps his reluctant approval on each application. The purpose of this motif is clear: to establish to British audiences what life in England would be like if overrun by an enemy with "an orderly mind." Thus, the whole film is a wartime morale-booster.

The crew represents an interesting cross-section of England: Sir George Corbett (played by Godfrey Tearle, who was the treasonous villain in Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps"), the "old man" WWI vet who wants to have another go at the Hun; Geof Hickman (Bernard Miles), the amiable Cockney; Frank Shelley (Hugh Williams), an actor; Tom Earnshaw (Eric Portman), a Yorkshire sheep breeder; Bob Ashley (Emrys Jones), a professional soccer-player; and the pilot, John Haggard (Hugh Burden), who bears resemblance to a younger version of the film's director, Powell. (Powell himself appears early in the film as an air-traffic controller - or "director" - reciting such lines as "Q for Queenie, you are now clear for takeoff.") The Dutch patriots are a fine, spirited lot: Pamela Brown and Googie Withers play two women who in large part are responsible for the downed fliers' safekeeping. Robert Helpmann, appears as a leering Nazi collaborator. And Peter Ustinov has a small role as a Catholic priest.