Secret Mission (1942)
Director: Harold French
Starring: Hugh Williams, James Mason, Carla Lehmann
Synopsis:
British spies and a member of the French Resistance infiltrate France to gather intelligence on the Germans in preparation for an invasion.
Impressions:
In my review of Objective Burma!, I responded to British criticisms of the America-centric story (made by Americans primarily for an American audience) by saying that the British had a perfectly capable film industry to tell the tale of their brave fighting men. However, if this film is any indication of what the British film industry was capable of during the war, I'll have to retract my statement. Ugh. This is a bloody boring mess, which isn't what you want to hear about a wartime spy thriller. The actor who got the best deal out of the film is Stewart Granger, who is onscreen for all of ten seconds. I was interested in seeing this because James Mason was in it, but his character isn't the focus and his talents aren't used anywhere close to full effect. I don't have anything positive to say about the movie. Pass on it.
Avoid It