One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Movie
Original title	One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
Country of production	United Kingdom
original language	English
Publishing year	1942
length	102 minutes
Rod
Director	Michael Powell , ; Emeric Pressburger
script	Emeric Pressburger, ; Michael Powell
production	Michael Powell, ; Emeric Pressburger
camera	Ronald Neame
cut	David Lean
occupation
	Crew of the "B for Bertie" Hugh Burden : John Glyn Haggard, pilot; Eric Portman : Tom Earnshaw, second pilot; Hugh Williams : Frank Shelley, observer and navigator; Emrys Jones : Bob Ashley, radio operator; Bernard Miles : Sgt. Geoff Hickman, front gunner; Godfrey Tearle : Sir George Corbett, sniper; and in Holland: Googie Withers : Jo de Vries; Joyce Redman : Jet van Dieren; Pamela Brown : Els Meertens; Peter Ustinov : priest; Alec Clunes : organist; Hay Petrie : Mayor; Roland Culver : naval officer ; on the North Sea; David Ward : 1st German aviator; Robert Duncan: 2nd German aviator; Selma Vaz Dias : wife of the mayor; Arnold Marlé : Pieter Sluys; Robert Helpmann : De Jong; Robert Beatty : Sgt. Hopkins; Michael Powell : Second Officer; Stewart Rome : Commander Reynold;

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (German: One of our aircraft is missing ) is a British war film drama by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger from the year 1942. As a British bomber is by German anti-aircraft fire damaged and forced landing must seek the men help and support a Dutch underground movement . The leading roles are starring Hugh Burden , Eric Portman and Hugh Williams . The film was nominated for an Oscar in two categories at the 15th Academy Awards in 1943 .

action

World War II : The six British RAF crew members John Glyn Haggard, Tom Earnshaw, Frank Shelley, Bob Ashley, Geoff Hickman and George Corbett and their Vickers Wellington bomber, named "B for Bertie", disappear at 4:31 am Sunday morning without a trace. However, the story that is told begins fifteen hours before the news that one of the planes is missing. The six men and their area of responsibility are isolated.

The aircraft of the six-person crew had to make an emergency landing near the Zuiderzee in the Netherlands after an attack on Stuttgart because one of the engines of the machine was damaged. The landing is turbulent. When everything has calmed down a bit, the men find that one of them, Bob Ashley, is missing. The first Dutch they meet are led by the English-speaking teacher Else Meertens. We meet with mutual distrust. The crew, as they cannot gauge the attitude of the people whose land was occupied by the Nazis, and the locals, as there was no report that a plane had crashed in their home country. There is an excited debate and questions buzz back and forth before the Dutch let it be known that they want to help the men, despite their fear of reprisals from their occupiers.

Accompanied by numerous Dutch people, the now disguised pilots, led by pilots Haggard and Earnshaw, drive to a football field where a game is currently taking place. This is where the mayor of the municipality is staying, to whom they will be handed over. They are amazed to find that their missing friend is playing on one of the teams. Now reunited, after waiting for a while, they hide in a truck driven by Jo de Vries. The woman pretends to be for the Germans and accuses the British of killing her husband, who was working as a radio announcer in England at the time, in a bomb attack. Nevertheless, she hides the men in her house, even though German soldiers are stationed nearby.

During one of the numerous air raids, she leads the men to a rowing boat under his protection. They manage to get out to sea undetected before they are discovered by a bridge guard, with Sir George Corbett, the oldest of them, being seriously injured by a gunshot. Nevertheless, the men manage to reach the North Sea and find shelter in a German lifebuoy . There they capture two shot down enemy planes and can send a radio message. It is a happy coincidence that two British boats reach the buoy first. Since Corbett cannot move, the entire buoy is dragged to England.

After three months have passed, and Corbett has recovered and is operational again, the crew board their new four-engine bomber plane, a Short Stirling .

production

Filming locations, shooting time, budget

The film recordings were made in The Fens , a moorland in eastern England, in The Wash , a flood-exposed river mouth on the east coast of England, in King's Lynn , a city in Great Britain on the Great Ouse , just before its confluence with the so-called The Wash the North Sea. The Fens, an area at sea level that was drained in the Middle Ages, begins in the immediate vicinity. The film was also shot in the Borough of Boston in Lincolnshire in England, at Denham Studios in Denham (Buckinghamshire) in England, at Royal Air Force Oakington Station north of Oakington, Cambridgeshire , in England and at Riverside Studios in the London borough Hammersmith . For the scenes that were supposed to show the bombing of Stuttgart, Art Director David Rawnsley had modeled a sophisticated model of Stuttgart in the Riverside Studios near Hammersmith Bridge in London. It was so huge that it covered the entire floor of the studio. The film script remained rather half finished during the entire production time, which was also due to the fact that there were constant changes and advances in war technology. Powell, for example, inserted the steel platforms anchored in the North Sea, known as Lobster Pots , which were unknown to the public at the time, into film scenes.

The film was shot from August 11, 1941 to March 1942. The film had an estimated budget of £ 70,000. Though the wartime budget was limited, Powell and his company made sure that the technical execution of the film was top notch. Noël Coward paid a visit to the set and was so impressed by the efficiency of the film crew and the staging of the intricate action scenes that he hired the entire crew for his war film In Which We Serve .

background

Roger Fristoe stated for Turner Classic Movies : “The subliminal but inspiring British military drama One of Our Aircraft Is Missing , filmed during World War II, was the fourth collaboration between Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and was themed by their production company The Archers. ”The film was made under the supervision of the Department of Information as part of a series of films designed to raise morale in the UK. The film is often considered one of the best British films of its time. For Powell and Pressburger, it was the film that made them a name for themselves in the British film industry and attracted the attention of such powerful figures as J. Arthur Rank . The duo first worked together in the 1939 war film The Spy in Black . Among the 19 films they have made together are such masterpieces as the epic Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), the film drama The Black Narcissus (1947) and the ballet film The Red Shoes (1948).

Pamela Brown, Joyce Redman and Peter Ustinov made their debut in this film. Googie Withers, who was mostly cast in small roles, burst into tears, according to Powell, when he gave her the leading role of a woman who is instrumental in ensuring that the men of the bomber do not fall into the hands of the Nazis.

Soundtrack

Powell had chosen to make the film's soundtrack realistic. So he largely avoided background music, and instead used the sounds that can be heard in a war to background music.

Onward Christian Soldiers , 19th century hymn of English origin
- Text: William Sabine Baring-Gould (1865), music: Arthur Sullivan (1871), whistled by Bernard Cribbens

reception

Publication, film title

The film was presented by British National Films (British National Films Ltd) The Archers. It was distributed by United Artists in the USA, Europa Film in Sweden, Columbia International Films in the Netherlands and Pathé Pictures Ltd. in the UK.

Premiered One of Our Aircraft Is Missing on April 24, 1942 in London. On June 27, 1942, he then started generally in the United Kingdom. An abridged version (86 minutes) was published in the United States on October 16, 1942. The film was released in Mexico, Argentina and Sweden in 1943, Portugal and France in 1944, Denmark, Finland and Belgium (Brussels) in 1945, the Netherlands and Italy in 1946, Hong Kong in 1947 and again in December 14, 1948 London. It has also been published in Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union.

The full English title is: The Story of ------ 'one of our Aircraft is missing' , alternatively … One of Our Aircraft Is Missing , on some movie posters also One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing! The original script was entitled One of Our Aircraft Failed to Return . Powell wrote in his 1986 autobiography A Life in the Movies that although he found the title evocative and melodious, it was generally felt to be too pessimistic. The title One of Our Aircraft Is Missing , which became the film title, is borrowed from a phrase that has often appeared on the UK news after bombing.

criticism

After its release in the UK in June 1942, the film was enthusiastically received. Powell wrote in his autobiography that J. Arthur Rank exuded smiling cordiality while watching the film and asked him to say what he wanted because they wanted to offer him a long-term contract.

TS wrote in The New York Times that Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger had created a tightly woven, finely drawn melodrama that almost made you hold your breath. The film never leaves its arc of suspense. One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is a good title that suggests an exciting adventure. The film more than lives up to this promise. Although the plot has a simple pattern, the director and producer have created a series of harrowing incidents in which the tension is so finely balanced that a single misstep could have destroyed it. The attack is as real as if it had been photographed during an actual operation. The crew's actors - Godfrey Tearle as the group's oldest, Hugh Burden as the pilot, Eric Portman as the gruff Yorkshireman, and Bernard Miles, Hugh Williams and Emrys Jones - are all equally important as members of the crew and have done well. The other actors were also praised with the caveat that Hay Petrie overreached in his role as village mayor.

At Rotten Tomatoes , the film received 63% approval from 365 user ratings.

Film.at came to the verdict: "Impressively documented planning and implementation of an air raid."