Review of Went the Day Well? (1942) by Paul D — 05 Dec 2008

A shockingly realistic, though obviously propaganda-driven British film from 1942. Made during the middle of the Second World War, by an Italian director, the idylic 'jolly hockeysticks' vision of the home counties in England during wartime is given a shake-up as Nazis infiltrate an English villiage.

It's up to the villagers to fight off the hun before the army arrive, and as the film progresses many characters that you grow to know get picked off in the most gratuitous manner by the invaders.

Obviously meant to frighten the British public into being alert around others, it must have actually terrified them, as not much British cinema from this era has ever shown such brutality onscreen.