Dean

In the 60s I saw a film in South Africa titled "Ill met by Moonlight" starring Dirk Bogarde. I understand that it was titled differently in the UK. Trying to get a copy (DVD), any ideas? Thanks

JamesM

Welcome to Britmovie. If you Google the words Ill Met By Moonlight, click on the first link and it will take you to the film's IMDb page. In the top right hand corner, click on the 'button' marked "DVD" and you will be taken to this page where the film can be bought on DVD for £3.97.

Amazon.co.uk: Ill Met By Moonlight [1957]: Dirk Bogarde,Marius Goring,David Oxley,Dimitri Andreas,Cyril Cusack,Laurence Payne,Wolfe Morris,Michael Gough,John Cairney,Brian Worth,Roland Bartrop,George Eugeniou,Paul Stassino,Adeeb Assaly,Theo Moreas,Em

theuofc

Hello, Dean,

Nice to see some Dirk Bogarde titles -- Ill Met by Moonlight and Victim -- popping up on the Forum. Dirk's birthday was yesterday, so it's especially cheering to see that Dirk's talent has not been forgotten. And also that many of his films are being released on DVD as is Ill Met.

All the best,

Barbara

Fellwanderer

Nice to see you back again, Barbara

Ill Met By Moonlight is my favourite Dirk film and one of my favourite war films - yet I still always want to read it as I'll Meet By Moonlight! The book is very good, too.

All the best
FELL

A signature is no substitute for a life

Steve Crook

It was called Ill Met by Moonlight in the UK and in most places. But in America they sometimes call it Night Ambush

As James said, it's available on DVD from Amazon.co.uk and probably other retailers.

That is a region 2 DVD so it should play equally well in Wiltshire or South Africa

Steve

Steve Crook

Also worth reading are some of Xan Fielding's memoirs and Patrick 'Paddy' Leigh Fermor's latest, Words of Mercury, where he at last writes about his wartime adventures.

Xan, Paddy, Billy Stanley Moss (author of the book the film's based on and portrayed in the film) and various others were a group of mainly ex public schoolboys who if it hadn't been for the war would have become smugglers or pirates. They liked adventure with a touch of romance

They were based at The White House in Cairo and from there they'd go out on various raids and adventures. Many of these were guided/suggested by SOE and other slightly shady organisations and they were generally working for the good of the Allied cause.

Xan & Paddy had both travelled extensively before the war, they both did a lot of travel writing after the war, that's still what Paddy's best known for. They had both been to Crete a few times and were quite well known and respected there.

So when the Germans invaded the island they helped organise some resistance groups up in the mountains while the Germans stuck to the low ground around the coast.

But then someone had the crazy idea that a group of them should land on Crete and with the help of some local resistance groups, they should kidnap the German General in charge of the island and bring him back to Cairo. It was to be done as much for the propaganda value as for any real intelligence they expected to get. They already knew most of the German's secrets thanks to the Ultra decrypts

There were a few minor difficulties of course but the mission went quite well and was very successful. And that's really the trouble that Powell & Pressburger had with it when they made the film. It was such an amazing story that there wasn't all that much that they could add to it to give it a touch of their usual magic.

But it's a very adequate film that tells the story well. Even though they couldn't actually film it on Crete because of the political situation there in the late 1950s.
Watch out for Christopher Lee as the German at the dentists

Steve

Nick Dando

But very, very few people actually knew about the Bletchley Park work. It was Top Secret until well after the war, IIRC into the 1960s. So I can't see that members of SOE would have been in the know. The information would surely have gone to the "official" spooks, MI5, MI6 and MI9, who all looked down on the "amateurs" in SOE.

Nick

Steve Crook

They were often given the information, but of course they weren't told where it came from. And they were only given it when there was another way in which it could have been found.

Like in Malta Story, they know where the German convoy carrying supplies to North Africa is going to be. But they have to send up a reconnaissance plane to photograph the convoy before they can "discover" it and attack it. Of course it helped that they knew exactly where to send the reconnaissance plane

Steve

Marky B

Nice to see you back,Barbara.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know