Ill Met by Moonlight

"Ill Met by Moonlight" is a different kind of film for The Archers, and sadly, their last venture together.

It's a World War II film, based on real-life events in Crete, about the British army and members of the Crete resistance who kidnap a German officer (Marius Goring) in order to send him to Egypt.

The British are headed up by Dirk Bogarde.

It's a slow moving film, without a tremendous amount of suspense, but I have to say I enjoyed it. It's rich in humor and examples of camaraderie among the soldiers and resistance workers. The photography is excellent, though it's no Black Narcissus.

The problem with it is that it isn't up to the usual standards of Powell and Pressburger and not representative of them. I do love Dirk Bogarde, though, in everything.

I re-watched this as I am currently reading the history of Crete during WW2. Many of the component parts of the true events are in the movie, which makes it a pretty good representation of what happened without it being a documentary. Of course, you have to factor in the 1950s acting and effects limitations but, having read a little about the real-life players, it wholly underplays events. Those guys spent a long time in the mountains fighting the Nazis - might have made them a little crazy.

On the Greek island of Crete during WWII, British agents are assisted by local partisans fighting the Nazi occupation. One night on a beach, they welcome Major Patrick Leigh Fermor DSO (Dirk Bogarde) and Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC (David Oxley) of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). They come up with a plan to kidnap German commander Major General Kreipe (Marius Goring).

It's a British war movie based on real people. The Italian locations look great and seem pretty close. There is a bit of espionage and some action. Mostly, it's collegial cat and mouse stuff. I would have liked to see the big ambush. The movie should follow Niko after the gold coin until the ambush happens. It's missing the big action finish.

Yes , it does come from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

This is because when the operation occurred, the British operators went under the codenames of Oberon, Titania and Ariel for the radio traffic back to Cairo. See Xan Fielding's memoirs as well as Lawrence Durrell's recollections of Paddy Leigh Fermor in Bitter Lemons, his reminiscences of the British campaign against EOKA in Cyprus in the late 50s.

It's not that bad a movie as it absolutely avoids the mawkishness of a propaganda piece and has a semi-documentary feel to it. You must remember there was an entire SS division on the island against which the 5 Britons and about 800 partisans were ranged. It is not so much derring-do as in the vein of The Password is Courage, another excellent true - life drama of Bogarde's.

What may not be widely known to movie fans is that at least two, or possibly three members of the cast of Ill Met by Moonlight, were former serving British Army Intelligence Officers. Dirk Bogart served as a British Intelligence Officer during WW2 on mainland Europe and in particular in Germany. His job was to round up Nazi Concentration Camp Guards. Bogart was at Belsen CC on day one of liberation. The movie, although based upon a novel by the same name, is not a fiction, but based upon actual events which took place in Crete involving SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) Officers and Greek Army Officers and local Cretan Royalists. The plan was to capture a German general and smuggle him out to Cairo. This was in effect an SAS operation which was highly successful. The movie came too close to reality for comfort and I believe that UK SIS wanted to protect former members of the Cretan Resistance as well as it's own serving officers who had taken part in the operation. To this end, I think SIS saw to it that the movie was dominated by one of their own, Dirk Bogart.

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