SECRET MISSION

UK, 1942, 94 minutes, Black and White.
Hugh Williams, Carla Lehmann, James Mason, Roland Culver, Nancy Price, Michael Wilding, Percy Walsh.
Directed by Harold French.

Secret Mission is a morale-boosting espionage story made during World War Two - making it seem a little bit too easy, perhaps, than it actually was.

Hugh Williams is the leader of an expedition across the Channel to find out information about German headquarters. James Mason is a free French patriot. Michael Wilding is a broad-accented English soldier. Stewart Granger, Herbert Lom can be glimpsed in brief roles.

The material is familiar - the British presented as the good chaps, the French presented as anguished patriots, the Nazis presented as shouting authoritarian leaders. Writing and direction is by Harold French, director of many films during the '40s from French Without Tears to participating in the anthologies of Somerset Maugham stories like Quartet, Encore and Trio.

1. War adventure and propaganda film of its time? Now?

2. British production, wartime atmosphere? Occupied France? Musical score? The stars - and their subsequent careers?

3. The title, the focus of the war effort, espionage? Occupied France? The free French?

4. The group, the mission? The British and their needing to get information? France? Going to France, the dangers? In France, disguise, French allies? Deceiving the Germans? Discovery, pursuit? Danger and death?

5. Peter, leadership, relationships with the group? His assistant? Reliance on Raoul? In France, the friendship with Michelle, falling in love? The pair disguised as champagne merchants? Getting to the Germans, bluffing their way, photographing the maps? The discovery, the pursuit? Raoul's death? The achievement of the mission?

6. Raoul, the free French, assisting with the mission, Michelle, at home in France? His being shot?

7. Knobby Clark, the ordinary English soldier, the French wife? A touch of comedy? In action in France, reliance on his wife? Shrewdness, saving Peter and his associate?

8. Michelle, the French women and their support? Protection against the Germans? Her relationship with Raoul, falling in love with Peter? Knobby Clark's wife and her assistance?

9. The picture of the French? Their support? The experience of occupation?

10. The Nazis, military presence? Ordinary soldiers in the street? Antagonism towards the French? The officials? The interrogations? The prisoner?

11. Popular war material - imitated so much better after the war?