Secret Mission

Films generally speaking fall into one of two categories: grevious disappointments and jubilant surprises. This lamentable effort falls squarely into category 1. It has to be one of the most inept, ludicrous and unintentionally comic films across which this viewer has had the misfortune to stumble.

Harold French would not be on anyone's list of top rank directors but this is the bottom of the barrel.

It is probably best to draw a discreet veil over Michael Wilding's 'Mockney' and the 'Frenchie' of James Mason. Hugh Williams and Roland Culver are both immaculate but totally miscast and saunter through proceedings like guests at a garden party. Mr. Culver's cravat is singularly incongruous in occupied France. The 'romantic' interest is supplied by Carla Lehmann who is about as appealing as a plate of cold chips. All of the Germans, with the exception of Herbert Lom's medical officer, are complete and utter buffoons.

One can only assume that the devilishly subtle propogandist message here is that if the Huns are this stupid, how can we possibly lose?!

4 intelligence agents - Williams, Mason (with French accent!), Culver and Wilding (just plain silly), go to France to see what the Germans are up to.

Very basic propaganda nonsense - all stiff upper lips and nazis all stupid and fresh out of pantomime with only Lehman and Culver retaining some little dignity. Like 'Allo, Allo' without the laughs - really not worth catching unless it's raining (heavily) and you've nothing better to do.

They are all in it, James Mason, Michael Wilding, Hugh Williams, Stewart Granger and even Herbert Lom as the one German officer who is not a complete caricature, and the glorious ingenious music adds to the general flavour of good humour and fresh spirits, which was needed in the darkest year of the war, 1942. It's war propaganda, of course, but not as daft as it looks from the start. There are some excellent scenes, and you don't always hear James Mason with a French accent complaining about English food in preference of the French kitchen. There are a number of bottles in the film, and some are even opened, but the only wines served is the champagne for the Germans. James Mason is about to relish a well preserved bottle of Calvados hidden from the Germans when the party is interrupted by an unnecessary argument. It all ends up with some real banging and bombing in the end, when the Germans really are blowing it, providing a grand finale, raising the film from a trifle to some interesting entertainment. The best scene is the exciting moment when Michelle is listening to the British broadcast and the Germans barge in just in the right moment when Hitler is speaking - but only as an example of German propaganda shown by BBC, but the Germans leave Mademoiselle with respect and full of admiration for her German loyalty.

As an entertainment it's well worth seeing, and James Mason never fails to make any film he is in interesting enough to keep you awake all the way.

Watching Secret Mission answered at least one question for me. The British no less than us were capable of putting out wartime propaganda flicks where the Nazis are shown to be complete imbeciles.

Secret Mission is the one that British soldiers Hugh Williams, Roland Culver and Michael Wilding were on. Williams and Culver are officers and gentlemen, but Wilding is a cheeky cockney private who happens to be married to a local from the area in France they're going. He's familiar with it himself.

Also along is James Mason who has an atrocious French accent who is a member of the Free French and he has family in the area as well.

Why they're in that particular area is unclear, but our guys get lucky in learning the Germans are building a huge underground bunker with all kinds of things stored there. Do you doubt that the guys on the mission foil the Nazi plans? They even rescued a downed Canadian flier to boot.

No one will ever confuse this film with some thing like In Which We Serve. If I didn't know any better I'd swear this one was put out by one of our poverty row studios. Look fast and don't blink and you'll catch Stewart Granger in a bit role.

Neither Granger or Mason ever bragged about being in this one.

Apparently, as the film "Zero Hour" inspired "Airplane!", this routine propaganda film, "Secret Mission" from 1942 was the inspiration for a British comedy, "allo, allo." The film stars James Mason, Roland Culver, Michael Wilding, and Karel Stepanek.

Mason plays Raoul, a member of the Free French Army (and his accent is appalling) who returns to France to get German intelligence. He brings with him Captain Red Gowan and Major Peter Garrett (Roland Culver and Hugh Williams). Raoul brings him to his family's home, which his sister Michele (Carla Lehmann) is not happy about. The three also enlist the aid of a Cockney (Wilding) who is married to the owner of a café.

The story is pretty absurd, though done with a straight face. First of all, Red and Peter walk around this French village in trench coats like no one is after them, and they stick out like sore thumbs. They bluff their way into German headquarters as champagne salesmen and these dumb Germans give them a lot of info about troops, and leave them alone in the commandant's office so they can take a look at the map and write down targets.

The saving grace of the film is that it focuses on a family and the effect of war, and there, it does a decent job. These films were meant to keep people going during the war. I'm sure at the time no one noticed the more amusing parts. Evidently someone did later on, though.

I'd call this mildly entertaining, and if you know the show on which it's based, you'll love it. Kind of like seeing Zero Hour after you've seen Airplane!