OK everyone else has given a good synopsis of this movie and you should realise you're not getting Citizen Kane here but a solid piece of propaganda produced on the cheap and quickly when such things mattered in Britain, ie a horde of Nazi stormtroopers were waiting to invade thirty miles across the Channel and the British people better be ready to deal with it when the time comes. The fact that we now know that the real threat of invasion had already passed by that stage no one knew for sure at the time that such was the case.
The acting is at times stiff and the dialogue can be a bit facile at times but when the acting and dialogue are good they are excellent. Look at the postmistress in the moments before she gives the German sergeant his comeuppance, watch her facial expression and wonder whether the Nazi was getting what she'd have liked to have given her late husband, all very edgy for 1942. The women and children do get the bravest roles and even if, like the lady of the manor or the daffy post office assistant, they are a bit hopeless at first they rally magnificently.
There are some very significant and subtle moments; the first active resister is the Christian minister, the British serviceman rallies the village defence is a sailor, the dreadful night ends and daylight breaks through just at the point when the villagers learn the outside world is on the way to help, the villagers are prepared to wreck their own beautiful and historic mansion house without a moment's hesitation in the fight to beat the Germans.
There are other enjoyably subtle moments too, "Oh Duck Madame!" when the shooting starts, "Not again" when the sailor shouts the same and surely I can't be the only one to pick up on the servant Bridget? The only named character without dialogue and who is told what to do by her fine bossy aristocratic English mistress but who seems as if she would rather have nothing to do with the whole affair.
Would I be wrong in guessing Bridget is from Ireland?
The acting is at times stiff and the dialogue can be a bit facile at times but when the acting and dialogue are good they are excellent. Look at the postmistress in the moments before she gives the German sergeant his comeuppance, watch her facial expression and wonder whether the Nazi was getting what she'd have liked to have given her late husband, all very edgy for 1942. The women and children do get the bravest roles and even if, like the lady of the manor or the daffy post office assistant, they are a bit hopeless at first they rally magnificently.
There are some very significant and subtle moments; the first active resister is the Christian minister, the British serviceman rallies the village defence is a sailor, the dreadful night ends and daylight breaks through just at the point when the villagers learn the outside world is on the way to help, the villagers are prepared to wreck their own beautiful and historic mansion house without a moment's hesitation in the fight to beat the Germans.
There are other enjoyably subtle moments too, "Oh Duck Madame!" when the shooting starts, "Not again" when the sailor shouts the same and surely I can't be the only one to pick up on the servant Bridget? The only named character without dialogue and who is told what to do by her fine bossy aristocratic English mistress but who seems as if she would rather have nothing to do with the whole affair.
Would I be wrong in guessing Bridget is from Ireland?