One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1942

One of Our Aircraft is Missing

1942

102 minutes

There is little doubt that many of the Powell/Pressburger films bear the imprint of WWII on them. As we start on the 4th of their films, all have been involved in some ways with the war and all have also been involved with repeated elements:

Border crossings, maps, lists (time tables etc.) 49th Parallel is all about border crossings (the Germans into Canada and their hopes of crossing the border into the US.

They all deal with questions of identity as well with people not being who they appear to be.

This is the second war film in which the action takes place away from “home”. Although it can be seen as a reversal of 49th Parallel it is quite different in a number of ways. Like 49th Parallel the action takes place away from Britain for the most part. Like 49th Parallel, it deals with a soldiers trapped in foreign country trying to get home.

Unlike the 49th Parallel it deals with British fliers trapped in another country, but in the case an allied invaded country: Holland, so instead of having the country against them, it has the country largely helping them.

THE FORMATION OF THE ARCHERS

The 49th Parallel made money and for the first time Powell and Pressburger had a bit. They decided to open their own company

50/50 split between Powell and Pressburger

This is the first film of “The Archers” the company established by Powell and Pressburger in which it was unclear who did what. This makes a serious problem for “auteur” theorists who hold the director is the author of the film. The Archers Manifesto was spelled out in a letter to Wendy Hiller while trying to get her to work on Col. Blimp:

In a letter to Wendy Hiller in 1942, asking her to appear in Colonel Blimp, Pressburger explicitly set out 'The Archers' Manifesto'. Its five points express the pair's intentions:

The idea was to give control to the film makers and not the “front office”

The character Sir George Corbett (played by Godfrey Tearle) was reported to be fashioned after the real life Sir Arnold Talbot Wilson. A Tory (conservative – crown supporterd) In 1939 he made a statement to Paliament when France fell, which said

"I have no desire to shelter myself and live in safety behind the ramparts of the bodies of millions of our young men."

He joined the RAF at 55 to be trained as a rear gunner.

He died in 1940 when his airplane crashed in France.

The funding of the film was to be from J. Arthur Rank (miler, rich, Methodist from Yorkshire. He built PINEWOOD studios with Lady Yule, a very rich widow of an Indian jute merchant, founder of a bank. who also supplied money for this film. Rank acquired GENERAL FILM DISTRIBUTORS and had a holding company dealing with DENHAM studios as well. He also had controlling interest in Gaumont-British Picture Corporation - a company that produced and distributed films and operated a cinema chain in the United Kingdom. His major goals were to stop the extravagant spending on the film industry and to stop the encroachment of American interests into British cinema.

Archers entered into an agreement with Rank. They would have a free hand in production while Rank set up Independent Producers Ltd. a company that would deal with business and legal matters. Later the company would be responsible of

Rank turned down the picture Powell told him it would be a big success and after that, Rank would come to them. British National picked it up (John Corfield and Lady Yule).

The Archers company hired actors and technicians film by film, but discovered there were people they could work with more easily than others and so there is a kind of repertoire group that the two tend to work well with. When Raymond Massey was offered the part in A Matter of Life and Death he said “For the Archers, any time, this world or the next”

It was a very “team oriented” group with anyone and everyone making suggestions (the storm outside the Hutterite farm was suggested by one of the technicians The title of the film now known as ...one of our aircraft is missing was originally One of Our Aircraft has Failed to Return. But one of the distributors suggested it was too downbeat and offered the final title as a substitute. This was a common line used by broadcasters and listeners heard it regularly as British planes headed out over the continent. In keeping with Powell’s direction, we find this film, like the first three, full of shots of lists, timetables, schedules, mechanical message sendings.

Also in keeping is the films interest with dual identities (Brits as Dutch) which leads to deceptions as to who one really is (the school teacher’s group has a picture of the queen hidden; the “widow” isn’t. Identity is also an issue with the word QUISLING in which identity relative to national or political affiliation is questioned

quis•ling: a person who betrays his or her own country by aiding an invading enemy, often serving later in a puppet government; fifth columnist.

Origin: 1940; after Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), pro-Nazi Norwegian leader

The film is “quasi-espisodic” (not quite as episodic perhaps as 49th Parallel) (a) the base (b) the plane (c) the school house (d) the church and Burgomeister house (e) the port (f) departure and rescue (g) epilogue

Unlike 49th Parallel, there are 3 women replacing the major stars. The first is the school teacher Els Meertens (Pamela Brown former girl friend of Powell); the second is Jet van Deeren (Joyce Redman) who appears in the second section with the Burgomeister and finally the “widow” Jo deVries (Googie Withers former girlfriend of Powell).

Only Googie Withers had appeared in films earlier. Pamela Brown was a well known stage actress and would appear in I Know Where I’m Going.

Among the crew is Eric Portman (this time a good guy). Powell and Pressburger offered him the part sure that he would turn it down. The part was OK according to Powell, but not really something that would show off his genius. He liked working with the pair and so he took the part.

There are also nice parts for a very young Peter Ustinov (the minister) and our old friend by now Hay Petrie whom we have now seen in The Spy in Black (the engineer) and Contraband (Axel and Eric Skold the mate and restaurant owner brothers) and will appear in this film and will appear in A Canterbury Tale and Red Shoes

There is also an appearance by Robert Helpmann (principle ballet dancer at Sadler’s Wells) as de Jong, the Quisling. Helpmann is a ballet dancer who will also appear in the Red Shoes and Tales of Hoffmann. This is his first non dancing part in film

Film was to honor the people in occupied countries who were helping British airmen return to their homes

Decision was made to make film about Holland.

They had a great deal of help from Dutch government in exile with much information about underground and resistance in Holland.

Editor: David Lean. Recommended Ronald Neame as cameraman. He, like David Lean would go on to become a director as did David Lean. Among his films are The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with Maggie Smith’s Academy award winning performance and Tunes of Glory a powerful film about a Scottish regiment.

Not able to go there, so had to use some sites in England to double for Holland which was not available (obviously). However the aerial shots from the plane of the bombing of Stuttgart are actually a model that was built covering the entire floor of one of the studios all rigged for explosions and so on. The cameraman had to lie on the roof and move the camera as the explosions were set off underneath. Powell asked if he were uncomfortable and he responded “ “

The film is peculiar for a Powell Pressburger film, and certainly as the first one for the Archers in that it has no music at all.

Debut in film for Peter Ustinov

John Seabourne Sr directed lobster pod scenes while constantly seasick.

WATCH FOR MICHAEL POWELL AS AN ACTOR PLAYING THE DISPATCHER – THE FIRST VOICE YOU HEAR IN THE FILM

AFTER THE FILM

Opening shots almost science fiction of horror – empty plane flying and crashing - where is the crew?

COMPARISONS WITH 49th PARALLEL are inevitable

Remember the Ministry of Defense’s statement on what the movies should be doing = comparing German values, ideas and institutions with British ones.

In both films a group of 6 military men find themselves in a country that is alien.

Initial sequence – odd (somewhat typical of Powell)

This is followed by the long intro of the empty plane returning to base with no one on board. The film then jumps back 15 hours and passes the starting point without noticing it. There is a shift to the viewpoint to that fliers and what happens to them. We pass the point where the film begins without noticing it.

EXAMINE THE OPENING SEQUENCES

Notice the lack of music. Very odd for someone headed toward a “Composed film” where the score is written before shooting and then the film is shot to the score (consider Fantasia)

Powell said “This is not a documentary; a detached narrative told from the inside of what it is like to be a pawn in total war a phrase which crops up constantly in these films. So the lack of music was a “naturalistic” choice There would only be the sounds of war.

The end of the film is equally odd, in that it gives the credits and indicates these are the people who would like to know what happened to the crew and we get a kind of epilogue.

In this film, it is the British values that keep the group together and the British values that make it possible for everyone to get out alive as opposed to the problems of the Nazis following Nazi values.

Differences:

The country isn’t hostile to the British foreigners here, but occupied. The natives (Dutch) to a large degree are friendly towards the British, unlike the Canadians who are hostile to the Germans.

The leadership in the German group is authoritative; in the British group it is democratic, they “vote” about decisions

Initially the “young” soldiers are not impressed by the older man; they are clearly the experts in the air; on the ground the older soldier’s knowledge becomes critical. He has been through this before – alone; with a few people; and with whole regiments. This tension between generations (especially of soldiers) and their attitudes to war which will be examined further in Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (next film)

The British group is made up from people from different classes of society who work together. The British group is made up from people from different classes of society who work together. There is a diplomat, a Yorkshire businessman; an actor; a football (soccer) player; a garage owner; and a baronet. There are also oppositions between North/South Age/Youth fame/anonymity

Very quickly the film gets into questions of identity and who people are. How do you provide proof that you are what you say you are? Strategies of concealment and camouflage.

Use of comedy to relieve tension (Germans have no humor in 49th Parallel), the Dutch national anthem playing out of the German barracks; the Mayor’s son who sabotages the records;

The German group disintegrates, while the British hold together – strong feeling of groupness or solidarity. By the end of the film, they argue they have to take the wounded man with them because he is part of the crew. So they tow the “lobster pod” back

Germans are not shown in the film “up close”. Almost none have faces, but their voices are heard in many forms, giving orders, reading requests, and so on. They become a “faceless” enemy whose “voices” are heard throughout, but who are never made into individuals, but depersonalized (much like many films with American Indians). Depersonalization of the enemy is often important so that they are not seen as “people” (Compare Silence of the Lambs where the comment is made that the senator keeps calling her daughter by name in an attempt to make her a person to the kidnapper)

One of the problems that has been seen with the film it is such an ensemble piece that the film tends to lose focus. Like the crew, the film treats everyone equally (although the actors were constantly trying to find ways to make themselves obvious and upstage one another)

The tension initially is caused by the audience seeing the plane and not knowing what happened to the crew. There are other moments such as the one that occurs in the church when the R.A.F. letters are clearly visible on the cloth and Brits are aware of it and are afraid that the Nazis will see it, but they finally get it covered.

THEMATIC

Identity/nationality relationships

schedules, timetables

deceptions

border crossings