Martin Bradley While not as well-known, nor as highly regarded, as their other later works this is every bit as good as one would expect from the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It's fairly predictable, flag-waving stuff following the fortunes of six British airmen shot down over Holland as they try to make their way to the coast and back to England.They are all well played by a stock company of British army types, though some of the 'Dutch' people they meet on the way, (Peter Ustinov, Robert Helpman, Googie Withers, Joyce Redman), leave something to be desired. The editor was David Lean and the photography was by Ronald Neame and they do a splendid job; it looks great and much of the airborne stuff has a documentary feel to it. It is also consistently tense and is actually better than the better known "49th Parallel".

ianlouisiana A bit of a Curate's Egg,this.A "Microcosm of Society" - type aircrew is shot down over Holland,contacts the Dutch Resistance and is guided safely back home.Now I understand it was made at a time when the British Government needed to ensure that we were all singing from the same hymn sheet and that Europeans(Brits weren't considered to be Europeans in those days)had to pull together to free the continent from the yoke of Nazism,but resistance to the Germans in Holland - like in France - was the exception rather than the rule,and these were lucky airmen indeed to have managed to contact members of such a very small and brave elite without disaster befalling them. Many Dutch and French were enthusiastically embracing Fascism right up until the Second Front opened. Mr Robert Helpmann as the collaborator would not have been quite the exotic creature he is made out to be. But my main concern about "One of our aircraft is missing" is the way the Dutch are portrayed as perky rosy-cheeked and chirpy,almost like members of the von Trapp family.And surely they wouldn't spend so much of their time together as a group right under the noses of The Master Race who might reasonably be expected to be a little suspicious of such gatherings. But considering the parameters within which it was made and the audience for whom it was intended,the film is capable enough,just a bit of a disappointment considering the talent involved and the high standard of many British propaganda works of the same era. The flying sequences are well handled but once the crew have parachuted and gone to ground,for me the tension is dissipated,when surely it should be increased. "Jaw,jaw",may be better then "War,war" as Churchill posited,but in "One of our aircraft is missing" it gets to be a bit of a "Bore,bore" I'm afraid.

bob the moo The crew of B for Bertie is forced to bail out when their engines are damaged during a mission over the Netherlands. They regroup but lose one of their number in the air. They are discovered by a group of Dutch children who take them to their parents. The parents link to the Dutch underground and begin to facilitate their escape – but it is a perilous journey. The film is dedicated to the Dutch farmers who died helping British airmen escape the Germans.Made during the war, the realistic and low key nature of this film is perhaps understandable, as is the consistently shouted theme of ordinary people making a heroic difference. The plot on paper is interesting as it does involve sacrifice and bravery from ordinary farmers, however the delivery is surprisingly uninvolving. The film is very slow for the most part, an impression that isn't helped by having a large proportion of the dialogue in Dutch. I know this helps the realism but it did make it harder for me to get into the film as often minutes could pass without me understanding a word.The realism of this film is fair to those it is dedicated to, but they aren't given characters to speak of. The RAF officers are well established with backgrounds but the Dutch and the Germans are all pretty one-dimensional and not developed (with one or two exceptions), again, another barrier to me getting involved.The cast are hard working and mostly quite good. The RAF officers have all the best roles and best lines, while the Dutch characters are not given enough to do – any film where Peter Ustinov comes off looking bland and ordinary has done something wrong!Overall I wanted to enjoy this film more, and it's core story and message to a war time population is worthy at least. However the distant delivery and lack of strong characters makes for a quite dull film. I enjoyed the film but it is impossible to overlook it's flaws. Many other reviewers here have mentioned that this film often is forgotten beside the wider works of Powell and Pressburger (and Lean, who edited), I suggest that these flaws are the reasons that it is overlooked.

robertguttman One of the best war films produced World War II, `One of Our Aircraft is Missing' is the product of one of the best British filmmaking teams of the 1940s, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The makers of such unusual and memorable films as `The Red Shoes' and `Black Narcissus', Powel and Pressburger's films were never like anyone else's. Their approach to a wartime propaganda film was equally different.`One of Our Aircraft is Missing' begins dramatically with the crash of an RAF Vickers Wellington bomber designated `B-For Bertie', and then flashes back to the events leading thereto. The viewer is introduced to the six members of crew, and learns that they had actually bailed out of their crippled aircraft prior to the crash, landing in Nazi-occupied Holland. The remainder of the story describes their escape back to Britain.What makes this film different from the conventional Hollywood treatment of similar subject matter is that `One of Our Aircraft is Missing' stresses the courage and resourcefulness of the Dutch civilians rather than the aircrew. Indeed, it made manifestly clear that the British crew could never have escaped without the assistance of a great many ordinary Dutch people of all ages and both sexes. The characters, both British and Dutch, are all well drawn Surprisingly enough, even the Germans are depicted as not entirely inhuman. `They want to be liked', says one Dutch patriot who has wormed her way into their confidence by posing as a Quisling.From a historical perspective, this film is of interest due to its depiction of RAF Bomber Command operations during the early part of World War II, as well as details of the interior of the famous Wellington Bomber. It is also worth seeing as early example of the work of legendary film director David Lean (`Oliver Twist', `Bridge Over the River Kwai', `Lawrence of Arabia', Doctor Zhivago', Ryan's Daughter', etc), who served as Film Editor. There is also an early performance by a very young (and thin) Peter Ustinov, who acts in Dutch and Latin as well as English. All in all, this film is well worth a look.