Customer Ratings & Reviews

Powell and Pressburger are responsible for some truly great films. This, however, is a more pedestrian effort. That is not to say it is not worth watching, but I had been expecting more. Made in the midst of World War II, the story follows the crew of a downed bomber and the members of the Dutch resistance who aid them. The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, and the story draws you in. Yet I did not find myself truly identifying with the characters.

There aren't enough Powell & Pressburger films on blu-ray, so to get another one is fantastic. As is typical of Olive, this release has good audio and video on a single layer BD25 and is worth buying, but the film could have looked better with a bit more effort put in to restoration and by being given a higher bitrate on a dual layer blu-ray disc. Some extras would also have been welcome.

VERY LOW BUDGET FILM, PROBABLY COULD HAVE BEEN GOOD MOVIE WITH BETTER DIR., ACTORS, PRODUCERS

I am reviewing the Alpha Home Entertainment version. Nothing against this film -- I am a fan of everything else I've seen by Powell and Pressburger and I expect I would at least enjoy this movie in other circumstances. I now realize I've been taking the restorations offered by Criterion for granted. The picture here is badly in need of restoration (which I was expecting), but the audio is a bigger problem for me. The sound is so muddy that I can't make out much of the dialogue, which itself wouldn't be that big a deal (I knew this was an inexpensive DVD so was not expecting much) except that there is no option for subtitles, which made simply following the plot an exercise in frustration.