Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageIll Met by Moonlight (1957)
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
It's sad that Powell and his long-standing collaborator Emeric Pressburger were forced into the grind of British war movies so soon after they had managed to transcend the limitations of most local cinema in movies like The Red Shoes and A Matter of Life and Death. Like their The Battle of the River Plate, this is superior of its kind, but that isn't enough to lift it into the areas that Powell and Pressburger mastered a few years earlier. It's based on an actual incident in World War II: British officer Bogarde is working with partisans in occupied Crete, and decides to kidnap the German commander-in-chief to boost the war effort. General Kreipe (Goring) is duly hijacked and trekked across country by night into custody on a British vessel. The scrupulous reconstruction is all pluck, stiff upper lips and mutual respect for one's foe. It's distinguished by Powell's sense of landscape (as in 49th Parallel), and by a vigorous Theodorakis score.Author: TR
Cast & crew
Director: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Producer: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Marius Goring, David Oxley, Cyril Cusack, Laurence Payne, Wolfe Morris, Michael Gough, Christopher Lee full cast
Genre(s): War
Duration: 104 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Has David Cronenberg turned tame?
Has director David Cronenberg veered too far from his radical and bloody roots with new film 'A Dangerous Method'?
Pop-up cinema for Valentine's Day
Side-step romantic clichés with some alternative Valentine’s viewing
The 10 worst date movies
Just in time for Valentine's Day, we present ten of the least romantic films ever made
Where to watch this year's Oscar-nominated films
Find out where to watch 2012's Oscar-nominated films in London cinemas
10 unlikely badboy biopics
Featuring Phil Collins, Jeremy Clarkson, Nick Clegg, David Starkey and a host of other unlikely subjects
What do you think?
Post your review now