Film Review
Graham Greene's short story
The
Lieutenant Died Last was the inspiration for this effective
wartime propaganda film which presented contemporary audiences with the
ultimate nightmare scenario: what would happen if the Nazis walked into
your back yard? The film was directed by the Brazilian born
filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti during his stint at Ealing
Studios. Cavalcanti began his career by working as an
assistant to the avant garde French film director Marcel L'herbier,
before moving to the GPO film unit in London, where he made some
notable documentaries, including
Coal
Face (1935).
Went the Day Well? was the
high point of Cavalcanti's time at Ealing. The film may not
be perfect (the editing is clunky and some of the film's humour sits
ill alongside some of its darker moments) but it provides a valuable
insight into the psychology of the British at a time when the
possibility of a Nazi invasion was a very serious prospect.
Naturally the film goes out of its way to portray the Germans as baby
skewering fiends with forked tongues, and it takes some stretch
of the imagination to believe that Nazis could pass
themselves off as British soldiers so easily. Otherwise, however, the
characters are generally true to life and convincingly portrayed by a
very talented cast. Leslie Banks makes a deliciously loathsome
quisling whilst the colourful thesps playing the courageous villagers
(including a young and gutsy Thora Hird) easily win our sympathies in
their seemingly doomed attempts to defeat the Nazi invaders.
Like pretty well all propaganda pieces,
Went the Day Well? is shamelessly
manipulative and includes several sequences which were clearly intended
to shock an audience out of its collective complacency. (As it
turned out, the film's impact was greatly diminished as it was released
some months
after Hitler's
invasion of England had been decisively thwarted).
Even today, it is a gruelling experience to watch the sequence in which
a party of home guard troops are ambushed and systematically
slaughtered by German soldiers. Just as shocking is the scene in
which the seemingly harmless postmistress slices up her billeted
soldier with an axe before being mercilessly bayoneted.
Characters that we grow to like are felled without fanfare or
reflection; anonymous soldiers are butchered, their lives seemingly
decided by a throw of the dice. It is this sobering
understatement of wartime experience which gives the film its stark
realism and impact, making it not just a classic of its kind but also
one of finest films to come out of Ealing Studios.
© James Travers 2009
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Next Alberto Cavalcanti film:
Champagne Charlie (1944)
Film Synopsis
One day in May 1942 a British Army convoy rolls into the sleepy English
village of Bramley End. The commander, Major Hammond, explains to
the startled villagers that his platoon is making a review of local
defences in readiness for a possible Nazi invasion. The
villagers, glad to do their bit for the war effort, agree to billet the
soldiers in their homes. But all is not what it seems. The
soldiers are in fact German troops in disguise, the spearhead for an
imminent invasion. With the help of the local squire, Oliver
Wiltsford, a fifth columnist, they are tasked with neutralising the
defences and communications in the area. When the villagers
discover the truth, the soldiers abandon their charade and take them
prisoner, warning them that they will be executed if they attempt to
summon help from outside the village...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.