Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger direct Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman and Hugh Williams in this wartime propaganda thriller about a downed bomber crew making their way back through the occupied Netherlands.

A nice little teatime adventure through the realities of resistance Europe bursting with stiff upper lip acting and a few of the experimental flourishes you’d expect from the makers of A Matter of Life and Death and The Red Shoes. We start with the doomed bomber mission and for twenty or so minutes The Archers touch base with future Paul Greengrass in their docudrama recreation, after that though proceedings normalise into something a bit sweeter but familiar. Fine but nowhere close to their brilliant gold period.

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