THE BATTLE OF THE V-1
UK, 1958, 100 minutes, Black and white.
Michael Rennie, Patricia Medina, Milly Vitale, David Knight, Esmond Knight, Christopher Lee.
Directed by Vernon Sewell.
The Battle of the V-1 is a small-budget war film from the late 1950s. It has been overshadowed by the prominence of so many British films with high profile actors like John Mills, John Gregson, Dirk Bogarde and so on.
Michael Rennie had appeared in a number of British films and had gone to the United States where he appeared in The Day the Earth Stood Still as well as portraying St Peter in The Robe. Patricia Medina was a British star who spent most of her career in the United States, generally in exotic roles. Milly Vitale, an Italian actress, had appeared with Kirk Douglas in The Juggle and had continued her career in Italy. The film shows Christopher Lee in a brief early role as a stereotypical Nazi guard.
The film is a tribute to the Polish underground, their ability to find out details about a pilotless plane which was to be used to bomb Britain. It was being manufactured in a Polish factory. Information was got to central Resistance headquarters in Warsaw and the information transferred to England. The British were then able to bomb the factory. The film also shows an example of the pilotless aircraft crash-landing, the local residents absconding with it and getting it transferred to England so that the British engineers could study it.
Vernon Sewell directed a number of small-budget films – and specialised in some horror films during the 1960s such as The Curse of the Crimson Altar.
1.The popularity of World War Two films? Re-creation of the era? Tributes? From the perspective of the 1950s? Now?
2.Black and white photography, the Polish settings, Warsaw, the labour camps? Britain? The musical score?
3.The title, the focus, the tribute to the Polish underground? The possibilities of this kind of experimental aircraft being used by the Nazis to bomb England? The Polish underground, discoveries, transferring the plane? Averting disaster?
4.The re-creation of the situation in Poland, Warsaw, the men reporting to work, being sent to the labour camps? The brutality of the SS? The Nazis? (The danger of stereotypical performance?) The transfer to the labour camps? The transfer of the women, children and older men to the concentration camps?
5.The Nowaks, Stefan and his teaching, Zofia and her not wanting him to report for work? His friend Tadek? Enrolling, the clash with the Nazis, Tadek and his being beaten? The contact from the underground and the codes? Their work, discovering the machine? Going to the dentist, making the transfer of information? Anna and her role? The other contacts in the camp? The information going to Warsaw, his indications of the code in his cards to his wife? The information going to England? The British discussing it, wanting more detail, photos?
6.The dangers in the camp? The men’s treatment? Their educational qualifications? The plan for them to be transferred to more intellectual work? The photos? Going to Britain?
7.Britain wanting a machine, the crash-landing, the locals absconding with it, concealing it? The little boy who discovered it, wanting the chocolate, the interrogation from the SS, his talking about it being found – and then flying off in the opposite direction? The ability of the Poles to get the machine and transfer it to England? The pick-up?
8.Zofia Nowak and her involvement, meeting Stefan again, his escape with Tadek? Anna and her being captured, tortured, not revealing anything?
9.Stefan as a hero, Zofia? The praise from the underground, the praise from Britain?
10.An interesting perspective on World War Two and central Europe?
