Ill Met by Moonlight

Ill Met by Moonlight - 1956 | 104mins | War, Drama | B&W

The Production Team

Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Asst Director: Charles Orme.
Producer: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Associate Producer: Sydney Streeter.
Executive Producer: Earl St. John.
Script: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. (from a novel by W. Stanley Moss)
Cinematography: Christopher Challis.
Editing: Arthur Stevens.
Art Direction: Alex Vetchinsky.
Production Manager: Jack Swinburne.
Costume Design: Nandi Routh.
Make-Up Artist: Paul Rabiger.
Special Effects: Bill Warrington.
Sound: Charles Knott, Archie Ludski and Gordon K. McCallum.
Music: Mikis Theodorakis.
Music Direction: Frederick Lewis.

The Cast

Dirk Bogarde - Major Patrick Leigh Fermor
Marius Goring - General Karl Kreipe
David Oxley - Captain William 'Billy' Stanley Moss
Cyril Cusack - Sandy
Michael Gough - Andoni Zoidakis
Dimitri Andreas - Niko
Laurence Payne - Manoli
Wolfe Morris - George
John Cairney - Elias
Brian Worth - Stratis Saviolkis

Plot Synopsis

On occupied Crete British Major Paddy Leigh-Fermor plans to demoralise the German forces by kidnapping Commander in Chief General Kreipe with the help of Captain William Stanley Moss and the local underground resistance movement. Disguised as German Military Police, they hijack Kreipe's car and, concealed by a heavy mist, thread their way on foot across the mountains unseen. Kreipe attempts to delay escape by claiming to have injured a shoulder, and sets a trail for his men to follow using his hat, medals and buttons.

The kidnappers find the rendezvous point surrounded by Germans, but after Kreipe has tried to bribe one of the Cretan boys, his plan backfires and the troops leave the spot unprotected. On the beach, Leigh-Fermor and Moss realise that they do not know how to signal Morse to the waiting British ship. Kreipe admonishes them as amateurs until Sandy, a British officer masquerading as a Cretan, signals to the vessel and they are picked up. Once aboard ship, Kreipe is handed his hat, medals and buttons, collected by Moss during the escape, and realises that his captors are not such amateurs as he believed.