Went The Day Well? (1942)

Dir. Alberto Cavalcanti

Plot: Nail-biting drama depicting a fictional Nazi occupation of a tranquil British village, and the transition of its mild-mannered inhabitants into a determined resistance force.

This deliciously tense what-if thriller is surely the jewel in the crown of wartime propaganda. A troop of Nazis infiltrates an English village disguised as Royal Engineers and proceed to insinuate themselves into village life with chilling ease. All the while they are cutting communications with the outside and readying the way in preparation for a full-scale invasion, so that when the villagers finally work out that there's something amiss, it's too late. Isolated from official channels, the unfortunate Britishers are forced to consider whether they have it in them to kill in order to avert a German takeover. Naturally, given the film's purpose, they do; but the depiction of their resistence is unflinchingly brutal and shocking for its time.

After a fairly slow opening establishing the arrival of the disguised enemy and also the presence in the village of a traitor (Leslie Banks, brilliant in a performance so despicable that I was literally gnashing my teeth at several points), the real meat of the story begins. Surprisingly for a propaganda feature, the villagers are not merely shallow Jerry-bashing ciphers, and the moral repercussions of killing are not sugared over. The look of horror on a timid housewife's face after she despatches a German officer with an axe, the panic of a Land Army girl upon shooting her first Nazi - these images are haunting and ramp up the paranoia-inducing realism of the movie, striking a nerve with a wartime audience.

In its attempt to paint the enemy in its worst colours, the film makes itself one of the most daringly brutal of the decade. During the scene in which the Germans lie in wait to ambush the local Home Guard, a miniature masterclass in tension-building, I kept thinking "This is from the 1940s, there's no way they'll let them be killed!" with the slightest hint of a superior sneer on my face. Bang bang bang, the Jerries gun the whole squad down and then execute the survivors. Then later on, whilst one of the men attempts an escape accompanied by the still-unexposed traitor, I thought "There's no way they'll let him be murdered!" Lo and behold, the unfortunate escapee gets stabbed to death by the turncoat and the Nazis announce they will shoot 5 children in retaliation for the attempt. Dark stuff, although at least they don't end up carrying out that last threat.

However, we are instead offered the brilliantly unexpected moment when a hand grenade sails through the window into the midst of the children's quarters. Without a pause, their guardian, the local lady of the manor, scoops up the bomb and steps out into the hallway with it - ker-blam. An unforgettable sequence and one which perfectly sums up the film's central message that victory is tough and bloody and cannot be attained without society pulling together to make the deepest of sacrifices. Stunningly shot, with an unusual abundance of outdoor sets which lend to the documentary feel, Went The Day Well? has immediately become my favourite British film of the decade, a gripping and brave vision of wartime Britain's greatest nightmare.

9/10