Went the Day Well?

I saw 'Went the Day Well' in 1943, as a 12 year old in war-time England.What I remember most about the film is that it was utterly convincing, both in the authenticity of the setting and the quality of the acting,My friends and I were, of course, perhaps less sophisticated and streetwise than the 12 year olds of today, nevertheless, the film left a lasting impression and I, at least, can remember it in a fair amount of detail, even after the passage of nearly sixty years. The least convincing part to us was the fight between the soldiers,English and German, towards the end of the film,located in and around the church - perhaps this was because we had watched too many carefully staged propanganda epics belittling the ability of the Germans ! All in all,though, a film which brought home the fact that the freedom we take for granted can so easily be lost unless we are eternally vigilant.

In WWII England a troop of surveyors are dispatched into a characteristically happy-go-lucky and scenic village, though really they are a select assemblage of German officers with orders to seize control of the township on the horizon of a covert German attack in a few days. Director Alberto Cavalcani is smart. Rather than this information creeping up on us like a twist, we grasp this from the start. When one of the villagers grows suspicious, we are in an enhanced state of tension. The Germans hijack the parish, a handful among which refuse to lose hope of alerting the unsuspecting free world around them.

Do not make the mistake of presuming that it is an insincere propaganda yarn, considering its era. This is in fact quite an electrifying tale of survival. If so many can overlook the propaganda of obsolete films like Battleship Potemkin, there is certainly room for this picture. It stands out, owing much to its unexpected flashes of violence that are sincerely exhilarating and often frank and uncompromising in terms of the drama. It is not gritty like most modern war films. The quaintly timeless English ambiance, and the consistent theme of it maintaining its spry morale, is a clever and natural juxtaposition to the taut aggression of the conflict, which is thus more well-defined. The relatively unfamiliar cast is plainly high- quality.

At its hub, yes, it's a work of propaganda exploiting a thriller story to enrapture its WWII-era British spectators. But mind you, it is based on a story by English writer and WWII MI6 spy Graham Greene. Nevertheless, the English were righteous in that war, remaining the only European country the Germans intended to occupy but never could. This piece grows to be as riveting as any other good movie, and what's more, its unexpected violence causes it to project with particular prominence.

Watching Went The Day Well? put me in mind of American propaganda films about fifth columnists in the USA. Some like Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage were well made. The majority of them were so bad that even in those patriotic days of World War II, I'm betting a lot of the audience must have laughed uproariously even then, let alone seeing them now. I can recall the Nazis being involved in black market cattle rustling in a Three Mesquiteers film, the East Side Kids discovering a spy ring in one of their films, and in a Judy Canova film Joan Of Ozark she's targeted by Hitler himself for finding and destroying a wireless transmitter in Arkansas. These films are hysterically funny today even the concept of them.

But for the folks in the United Kingdom this was a real threat. Hitler and his legions were all along the coast of Europe ready to spring into action, threat of an invasion was real. The Germans occupied a few of the English Channel Islands which are part of the United Kingdom proper. To this day historians debate why he shifted his attentions from Great Britain to the Soviet Union. Because of that a film about German troops being brought in stealthily to the United Kingdom and assigned to take a certain village for its geographic location and relative inaccessibility, the better to defend if found out holds up even today.

That's what happens some elite German troops in the uniforms of British sappers are sent to occupy the village of Bramley End. Basil Sydney and David Farrar command the troops and they convince the townspeople at first they're real. A really stupid error on Sydney's part gives them away, so the village is occupied for real. An invasion is coming within a few days and the villagers make many attempts to get help from the outside.

The local squire is played by Leslie Banks and he's a Cliveden set type, a Nazi sympathizer. Banks has the best role in the film as he sabotages a few efforts at resistance.

I do love this film so, it shows that the people who united to save the British army to get them off the beaches at Dunkirk are still doing what they have to in order to save civilization itself. Leading the resistance is a sailor played by Frank Lawton who happens to be on leave visiting his family in Bramley's End.

Went The Day Well? is the best kind of wartime propaganda film and the people's resistance even in an event that never occurred will still inspire audiences today.

A splendid movie well acted and directed, the story grips you from the start,the film includes self sacrifice and treacherous behaviour.The pace of the movie is fantastic not a dull moment.There is one scene which shows that ordinary decent people when cornered can fight back with a fierce tenacity when their homeland is threatened.This movie is the inspiration behind the eagle has landed and i think it would be a hit if it was remade.

An ahead-of-its-time film if ever there was one, WENT THE DAY WELL? is still a chilling wartime thriller even watched today. It begins deceptively genteel, with Mervyn Johns talking to the camera (a great device) and leading us into a story which times out to be both hard hitting and inspirational.

Like the later film, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, this fictional movie poses the 'what if?' question - what if the much-mooted Nazi invasion of England had really taken place? The answer is limited to a single rural village in the English countryside which soon finds itself taken over by ruthless German soldiers.

What follows is expertly paced and supremely directed, with the villagers harried, hassled and murdered and eventually fighting back against their oppressors. It's still a violent and grim film, with axe murders, knifings and all manner of shootings put on the screen, although in my mind a scene involving a hand grenade marks the most shocking moment. An excellent cast, topped by THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME's Leslie Banks as a sinister collaborater, help make this a British classic.