Appointment in London

This film was also released as APPOINTMENT IN London. Dirk Bogarde is the stalwart star of this wartime drama centered around the lives of the men of a bomber squadron based at Lincoln. A great deal of original aerial footage is edited into the film throughout, culminating in a huge bombing raid over Germany in the latter part of the film, which shows a genuine squadron flying in formation at night, and features the most astonishing real footage of the roaring inferno produced by such a bombing raid. There are also some shots of London in 1952 showing that there was still almost no traffic. Bogarde plays Wing Commander Mason, who at the beginning of the film has flown 87 sorties over Germany and is being urged on all sides to call it quits, but he is determined to go on until he completes 90 missions, because 'I have set my mind on it'. However, he is getting over-tired and everyone worries that he will make mistakes or simply not make it. My wife likes Bogarde a great deal. She used to be taken by her mother to tea with him and his mother in Denham Village when she was a child, when she became entranced by him and his peculiar charm. His mother was apparently rather butch. I only met him and chatted with him on one occasion, at Shepperton. He was certainly a major figure in the history of British cinema. He could be rather waspish, and was no heterosexual. One old friend of ours unexpectedly turned up on the credits of this film, Cecil Ford. He was credited as Assistant Director. I checked IMDb, and he had already been an assistant director for five years by this time. The next year he moved up to Production Manager. Dinah Sheridan plays the love interest in this film. Although everyone thought she was an English rose, Sheridan was really half Russian and half German. She did very well in the part, showing great restraint as 'a widow since Dunkirk' and not falling for the first airman she sees. Everyone in the film is very restrained indeed, and all the upper lips are stiff in the Old Style. This is seriously traditional British fare. Bryan Forbes does very well as an airman who doesn't make it. His wife is played by the interesting actress Anne Leon, who died long ago and made few films. She was very effective, but as she was no glamour gal, it seems she was not offered many parts. It is always a pity when people of talent are not properly recognised. In terms of names we might recognise today, Nigel Stock is uncredited as a co-pilot, not that you would notice. And that is about it. The film was ably directed by Philip Leacock, who went on to make another film with Dirk Bogarde three years later, THE Spanish GARDENER, and later in life was primarily a director of many popular television series. This film is probably about as realistic as you can get, as a portrait of Bomber Command in operation during the War. But it never sacrifices fiction for fact, and maintains strong story lines and dramatic narrative throughout, with all the accuracy serving to make it more moving and authentic.

I am surprised I haven't run across this one before discovering it recently on-line. What most of the other reviews have said is true. The bombing sequence at the end of the movie has a documentary quality to it readily evoking MEMPHIS BELLE -- not the disappointing 1990 movie, but the 1944, William-Wyler-directed wartime documentary released by the United States Army Air Forces during the war itself. It is also a highly detailed treatment that illuminates the RAF's night-time area bombing tactics far beyond else ever dramatized. By the same token, the entire rest of the film tends to be a straightforward representation of what it was like for participants in that phase of the war, remarkable as a movie for its minimization of histrionics. It deserves at least a bare minimum of a 7 on IMDb.

It has something of an inauspicious title, in that it doesn't do justice to the film making craft and subject matter on offer here in Phillip Leacock's film.

Leacock and his lead man, the splendidly regal Dirk Bogarde, produce a war film of undoubted human depth. There's no sledge hammer tactics to try and curry favour with the critics and film goers alike, no clichés bogging the narrative down, this is an honest to goodness telling of the emotional trials, strains, fears and peeves of a Bomber Command Squadron in England preparing for a mission during WWII 1943. Even the inevitable romantic threads are handled with skill by the makers, never cloying and adding impact as the heroes get ready for the big bully off.

Some of the action sequences show their age, but that's fine in the context of old time cinema, while the likes of Twelve O'Clock High (which came four years before this was released) set the bar too high for Leacock's film to be unfairly compared with. Yet this earns its stripes, very much so, because as those wonderful Avro Lancaster's take to the skies and thunder though the clouds, you realise you care about every single one of those involved in the mission, both in the air and on the ground. 7.5/10

Some of the best war films have been movies about the Allied bombing campaign of WWII. "Command Decision", "12 O'Clock High" and "Raiders in the Sky" are all excellent films--though the latter is set at a British bomber base whereas the first two are about American bases. While I wouldn't quite put this film in the same level as the other two in quality, it is awfully close and well worth your time.

The film centers around Wing Commander Mason (Dirk Bogarde). He's a very good pilot. However, his 87 missions is wearing on him and he's long overdue to be retired from the front line. Oddly, instead of being happy about this, Mason insists on being able to at least reach 90...and then he'll quit. The film is a nice portrait of Lancaster pilots and crew and because it was made not too long after the war, the filmmakers were able to use three airworthy bombers--which added to the realism.

So why do I think this one isn't quite up to the level of the American films? Well, mostly because Mason just seems to take the whole thing in stride (apart from insomnia) and he seems amazingly well adjusted...taking away from the tension that DID come because the other two films focused so strongly on the emotional toll. Still, a nice tribute to these brave men and well worth your time.

"Appointment in London" is an unusually-atmospheric, stylish and very-consistently-interesting late British WWII film. The subject is the pilots of British Bomber Command and the stresses they encounter in battles as the fly Lancasters in night missions over the European mainland. Specifically, the film features as its central character a dedicated pilot, played elegantly by Dirk Bogarde. He has completed 89 missions and survived, but very much wants his 90th. Due to fatigue and concerns for his well being, echelon grounds him. he is angry and frustrated, but during his time on the ground, he reconnects to life and wins lovely Dinah Sheridan, who acts very strongly as the widow of a naval intelligence type, winning her from breezy Willaim Sylvester, a U.S. pilot. The added tension in the film comes from Bogarde's desire to complete his third tour with one final mission, and the fact that everything about it sets up to be a "jinxed" mission from the start. I will not give away the breath-taking and vivid climax, but apart from some leisurely spots here and there, I will claim that director Philip Leacock has produced one of the best of all war films in "Appointment in London" The script was credited to Robert Westerby and John Woolridge, with cinematography by Stephen Dade and art direction by Donald M. Ashton. John Woolridge also wrote the fine original score, and costumes were contributed by Sheila Graham. In appearance, the film is very strongly made, and attractively photographed. The aerial sequences are very good and the recreated picture of wartime London is a big selling point for this hard-to-find film. Bogarde and Sheridan are extraordinarily touching and intelligent; I cannot recommend this film too highly as drama, as a war movie or as a cinematic "sleeper", one which in lesser hands would not have been as absorbing as it was made to be.