MartinHafer During WWII, Hollywood made hundreds of films aimed at solidifying the public's support for the war. Some of these were extremely well made while others often made the Japanese or Germans seem semi-human and rather stupid. These less well made and less realistic films often were, in spire of themselves, quite entertaining...but also very obvious in their aims. When I saw "Secret Mission" I realized that the British, too, could make ridiculously unrealistic propaganda films....and while the Nazis aren't quite as cartoonish as some of Hollywood's Nazis, they were incredibly stupid...so stupid you wonder how they ever took over most of Europe!!The story involves some British spies as well as one French one (James Mason of all people) who sneak into France in order to survey the area before an upcoming invasion. The Nazis are uniformly dim...having very lax security and falling for pretty much every lame attempt at subterfuge! The Germans are SO dumb that it really takes away from the movie...and doesn't show how efficiently evil they really were!So is it any good? Well, it's not terrible...not that this is a glowing endorsement! Overall, despite some very fine actors (such as MIchael Redgrave, Herbert Lom and Roland Carver), a relatively dull offering...one that is watchable but not much more.

JohnHowardReid Hugh Williams (Peter Garnett), Carla Lehmann (Michele de Carnot), James Mason (Roul de Carnot), Roland Culver (Red Gowan), Michael Wilding (Nobby Clark), Nancy Price (Violette), Percy Walsh (Fayolle), Anita Gombault (Estelle), David Page (René), Betty Warren (Mrs Nobby Clark), Nicholas Stuart (Captain Mackenzie), Brefni O'Rorke (Father Jouvet), Karel Stepanek (Major Lang), F.R. Wendhausen (General von Reichmann), John Salew (Captain Grune), Herbert Lom (medical officer), Beatrice Varley (Mrs Donkin), Yvonne Andre (Martine), Stewart Granger (Sub-Lieutenant Jackson).Director: HAROLD FRENCH. Screenplay: Anatole de Grunwald and Basil Bartlett — from an original story by Shaun Terence Young. Director of photography: Bernard Knowles. Special effects: Percy Day, Desmond Dickinson and John Mills. Music: Mischa Spoliansky. Art director: Carmen Dillon. Editor: E. B. Jarvis. Supervising art director: Paul Sheriff. Camera operator: Cyril Knowles. Still photographs: Jack Dooley. Production manager: Tom White. Assistant director: W.N. Boyle. Sound supervisor: A.W. Watkins. Sound recording: John Dennis. Western Electric Sound System. Made with the co-operation of the Ministry of Information, the War Office, and the Air Ministry. Producer: Marcel Hellman. A Marcel Hellman Production. An Excelsior Film.Copyright 4 January 1945 by English Films, Inc. U.S. release through English Films: 26 September 1944. No recorded New York opening. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 5 October 1942 (sic). Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 3 June 1943. 8,542 feet. 95 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Three officers and a private from British Intelligence are landed in Occupied France.COMMENT: A bizarre mixture of straight spy suspense and lowbrow comedy. Fortunately as the plot progresses, Michael Wilding's comic Cockney disappears for long stretches, allowing the more suspenseful elements to take hold in between the usual unlikely bouts of romance. On the whole, thrills win out. Good production values help. The photography is especially attractive. On the debit side, Mason's fans are not going to be happy either with their hero's tiny part or his ridiculous French accent. It's the far less personable Hugh Williams who steals most of the footage.

Leofwine_draca SECRET MISSION is a routinely-plotted WW2 propaganda movie, made in Britain and set in occupied France. The plot is about a hodge podge of British spies and French resistance members who enter France in order to find out information about the enemy's local resources so that a secret invasion might take place.This is one of those films which offers up a little bit of everything. There's romance here, some humour, suspense, and action too for the gung-ho crowd. What I liked most about it was the fact that the heroic characters have greater depth than normal by genre standards, so you end up caring about their plight. James Mason in particular stands out as a sympathetic fellow. The film starts off a bit slow but gets better and better as it goes on, building to a truly satisfying climax.

max von meyerling I'm sure that viewed during the war it was taken seriously but viewed today, with a critical eye, and I don't mean an aesthetic eye, its absurdity is what is called camp. It was only watching this film that I realized that the British TV series 'allo! 'allo! (1982-1992) was a broad parody. The central characters are two veddy veddy British chaps in trench coats wandering around in and out of the woods. Always in their trench coats. There's the cafe run by a Cockney in a beret always at odds with his wife. All we need is for the local flick to drop by and say "Good moaning". Even though people took this seriously at the time it boggles the mind to think people could really believe espionagewas actually conducted this way. For fans of the TV series this is a must not miss. I just wonder how stoned Croft and Lloyd were after seeing this film on TV 30+ years after having seen it in a West End cinema and realizing how absurd it all was and how they didn't notice 30 years before.