Buoy scene in One of Our Aicraft is Missing

[Torquemada]

When the escapees rowed to the rescue buoy I thought it all got a little incongruous. There was no explanation of why the two German's were there, but there was a comment that the Brits had taken their weapons from them. To me it looked as though a whole scene has been cut. Can anyone offer any input on this?

[will.15]

I wonder who is going to answer this question.

[Steve Crook]

When the escapees rowed to the rescue buoy I thought it all got a little incongruous. There was no explanation of why the two German's were there, but there was a comment that the Brits had taken their weapons from them. To me it looked as though a whole scene has been cut. Can anyone offer any input on this?

The rescue buoy was a real rescue buoy - but a German one. They were stationed all over the Channel and into the North Sea for Luftwaffe pilots to take shelter in when they were shot down.



In the film the British airmen arrived at the buoy and overpowered the two German airmen who were already there. Because it was a German buoy and they thought that the Germans would have already called for help, they set it adrift in the hope that they'd be picked up by the Royal Navy rather than by the Germans.



It's typical of a Powell & Pressburger film that they don't explain every little detail or show every step along the way. They leave a few things for you to think about. There are a few clues in the instructions that Jo de Vries gives them and a few others in what they say on the buoy and when they are picked up. But what could they have put into a scene to fill that gap? They had met the fishing boat that Jo had told them would take them out to the buoy. There's not really very much missing between the scenes we do see, only a ride on a fishing boat and a 10 second struggle as 5 British airmen (plus 1 who is wounded) overpower 2 Germans.



It's also very much in line with another strange aspect of all of P&P's wartime films (the ones made during the war). Lots of them are about people serving in the armed forces during the war - but none of them show much fighting. They were more concerned with the effects of the war upon people rather than with the details of the war itself



Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

It's also very much in line with another strange aspect of all of P&P's wartime films (the ones made during the war). Lots of them are about people serving in the armed forces during the war - but none of them show much fighting. They were more concerned with the effects of the war upon people rather than with the details of the war itself



Steve

And you've forgotten the other strange aspect...the unfinished soup

[Steve Crook]

And you've forgotten the other strange aspect...the unfinished soup

There's a whole page about Unfinished Soup in P&P Films



Steve