Review of Ill Met by Moonlight (1957) by Van R — 24 Dec 2009

NIGHT AMBUSH qualifies as a minor but factual account about the April 1944 abduction of a high-ranking German general by the British with the aid of Crete resistance fighters. The writer & director combo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who made ONE OF OUR AIRCRAFT ARE MISSING, based their screenplay on the 1952 book Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe by W.

Stanley Moss. British officer Major Patrick Leigh Fermor (Dirk Bogarde of THE SERVANT) steal ashore after dark and help the resistance capture Kreipe (Marius Goring of THE RED SHOES) and take him on a grueling journey into the mountains across Crete to a rendezvous with a British warship while the Germans scour the terrain in search of their commanding officer who was the top officer on the island of Crete.

Ostensibly, there is not much combat action in this thriller about stealth, but the scenery looks spectacular. Michael Gough, who later gained fame as the butler in the Michael Keaton BATMAN movie makes an appearance as Andoni Zoidakis, while future DRACULA star Christopher Lee plays a German soldier in one scene.

Competently made drama boasts its share of twists and turns in the narrative as our heroes toil on foot to meet the British destroyer that will transport Kreipe to Cairo for questioning. When everything is said and done, General Kreipe salutes Fermor and congratulates him for his daring escapade.

The mutual respect and admiration between the British and the Germans was a theme that recurred throughout the war films of Powell and Pressburger. British cinematographer Christopher Challis lensed this atmospheric wartime thriller in black & white.

Challis shot the World War II thriller THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATTE (1956) for Powell and Pressburger, and the film was later retitled as PURSUIT OF THE GRAF SPEE.