Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)

Directors:

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Writers:

W. Stanley Moss (adapted from the book: "Ill Met By Moonlight" The Wartime Diary in Crete of)
Michael Powell (written by) ...

Release Date:

July 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | War

Tagline:

One of the war's most dashing feats - they kidnapped a German General under the nose of his army.

Plot:

Led by British officers, partisans on Crete plan to kidnap the island's German commander and smuggle him to Cairo to embarrass the occupiers.

Plot Keywords:

Crete | Partisan | General | Morse Code | Occupied Nation

Cast

Dirk Bogarde	...	Maj. Patrick Leigh Fermor
Marius Goring	...	Major General Kreipe
David Oxley	...	Captain W. Stanley Moss, M.C.
Dimitri Andreas	...	Niko Soldan Emeris (as Demetri Andreas)
Cyril Cusack	...	Captain Sandy Rendel
Laurence Payne	...	Manoli
Wolfe Morris	...	George
Michael Gough	...	Andoni Zoidakis
John Cairney	...	Elias
Brian Worth	...	Stratis Saviolkis
Roland Bartrop	...	Micky Akoumianakis (as Rowland Bartrop)
George Eugeniou	...	Charis Zographakis
Paul Stassino	...	Yani Katsias
Adeeb Assaly	...	Zahari
Theo Moreas	...	Village Priest

Also Known As:

Intelligence Service
Night Ambush (USA)
Colpo di mano a Creta (Italy) [it]
Emboscada en la noche (Argentina) [es]
Emboscada nocturna (Spain) [es]
I apagogi tou stratigou Kreipe (Greece) [el]
Intelligence service (France) [fr]
Kenraali katoaa (Finland) [fi]
L'agguato (Italy) [it]
Nat over Kreta (Denmark) [da]
Perigo nas Sombras (Portugal) [pt]

Runtime:

104 min | USA:93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Greek | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:U | Australia:G | Finland:K-12 | USA:Unrated | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Alpes Maritimes, Alps, Italy

Company:

Rank Organisation, The

Trivia:

David McCallum's film debut.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: General Kreipe's Mercedes has French registration plates. (The film, set in Crete, was shot on location in France.)

Quotes:

Maj. Patrick Leigh Fermor aka Philedem: Field Marshal Rommel won't be in Cairo but you will be!

Straight WWII adventure - in some respects

Think of `The Guns of Navarone', but with these differences:

(1) The band of adventurers genuinely like each other.

(2) Their mission is not to blow anything up. Rather, they plan to kidnap a German general and take him to Cairo. It's a publicity stunt. But it soon ceases to be a MERE publicity stunt: demonstrating German vulnerability may be as important as creating it.

(3) We get a good look at Crete - and NOT just because of spectacular scenic photography. We really feel at home on Cretan soil. Michael Powell, who had a talent for finding out-of-the-way composers (he also introduced Ralph Vaughan Williams and Brian Easdale to the cinema) has this time found Mikis Theodorakis, whose score is strongly flavoured but friendly to the ear.

With all this, `Ill Met by Moonlight' is an unusual venture by Powell and Pressburger, in that it isn't unusual: it's another World War II mission story, and there have been dozens. It IS more civilised than most. It tells its simple story neatly and cleanly; it's sweet, unpretentious, and disappointing only in that, since it was Powell and Pressburger's last official collaboration, it would have been nice to go out with a bigger bang.

The title is a line from `A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Its relevance is not obvious, at any rate not to me. Am I missing something?