That was Jean Gourguet 's last film, a director with a very bad reputation ; the screenplay deals with the crossing of the Loire river , during the flight of European civils from the north of France during the German invasion in 1940; this subject recalls another Gourguet's effort "la cage aux souris "(1954) : later ,in 1942,resistant fighters , helped by high school girls ,tried to cross the Alliers river .....
Both films begin with pictures provided by the service cinématographique des armées ; but the 1961 final effort is a sharp improvement on the earlier work.
An ill-assorted group of people takes refuge in a farm in which a servant,Maria, is the only survivor ; it does not avoid clichés : the Pole student,Eric -just to provide the movie with its love interest -, a couple of selfish snob bourgeois ,whose only concern is their belongings -although the wife becomes more compassionate as the movie progresses -, injured mom and daughter , hoodlums who want to kill the unique cow to make steaks (they do not realize how much a living one is more useful !) , a sympathetic poor woman from Normandie ; but Gourguet's most endearing characters are a couple of old people : the husband (a wonderful Pierre Larquey ) and his wife who has been writing her diary since she turned eighteen .....
The movie looked passé at the time , it probably came a decade too late ;although most of the action takes place on a farm , during the French "exodus",like in "jeux interdits" (forbidden games) (1952), it's not on a par with René Clément's masterpiece .But in our troubled times ,it is comforting to see people, overcoming their differences , stand together when they have to face a common enemy .And the ending is not the de rigueur happy end .The final scene shows that ,as a director,Gourguet had latent resources .
