Genre: Drama, History, War

Year: 1953

Country: UK

Rating:

Starring: Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Anthony Steel, Muriel Pavlow, Renée Asherson

Director: Brian Desmond Hurst

My Review: It's a barely tolerable movie. Boring, dated, poorly acted, British flag waving propaganda. A black and white movie about Malta's critical role during World War II. Smack dab in the middle of the mediterranean, Malta became a strategic hot spot as the Nazis tried to keep their North African campaign alive. From Malta, the British had a commanding view of the entire med, North Africa, the Middle east, and Southern Europe. The movie itself is very poorly acted - The worst performance by Alec Guinness that I have ever seen. The dialog was horrible. The story quite distracting. The movie at times felt like a documentary, but then they mixed in a little romantic distraction. Then there was the attempt to switch to dramatic reenactment. All in all it made for a very disconcerting feel. The movie's continuity was very poorly handled. The good parts were the excellent use of archival footage. The archival footage and movie were shot in much the same manner, and this made for a very realistic feel in the editing. The only distraction in that regard was the model airplanes used for some of the dog fights. There are two reasons to watch this film; to gain a sense of Malta's strategic role during WWII, and to view the outstanding archive footage and aerial reconnaissance. The movie certainly portray's the Maltese as a brave and patriotic people, but the film clearly glosses over the hardships they suffered during the war. The lack of proper music and a poor sense of pacing put me to sleep while watching this movie. Well, that and a late night out with dinner guests… Anyway, the movie was exceedingly boring. The only reason I rewound it and finished from where I feel asleep? The archival footage. I spent 20 years in the U.S.A.F. and I found the aerial reconnaissance and archival air combat scenes to be quite interesting. Unfortunately, due to poor production and acting, I can't manage more than a 2 out of 5 for this movie.

Summary: In 1942 Britain was clinging to the island of Malta since it was critical to keeping Allied supply lines open. The Axis also wanted it for their own supply lines. Plenty of realistic reenactments and archival combat footage as the British are beseiged and try to fight off the Luftwaffe. Against this background, a RAF reconnaissance photographer's romance with a local girl is endangered as he tries to plot enemy movements.