Quentin Reynolds

Charles Hasse

Harry Watt

Documentary

Christmas Under Fire

Crown Film Unit

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

Ok, so the narrator keeps calling Britain England, and that is annoying, but if you just turn down his ramblings then you may appreciate a slightly sentimental but still quite poignant look at how the U.K. approached Christmas. The year hasn’t been an unadulterated success on the wartime front, and there are ruined buildings a-plenty. Attitudes are not, however, ruined, and with a clear stoicism we see an opportunistic window cleaner who puts a sign over his devastated shop front declaring “Window cleaner open for business. If you haven’t any windows left, we’ll clean your chimneys instead” There is also an haunting rendition of “Silent Night” floated over some images of families, children, trees and Christmas scenes that suggest that, at least for this one day, things in this war-torn land have some semblance of normality - even if the toy Maginot lines aren’t selling like they used to! It is obviously intended for US consumption to engender sympathy for their battle-weary cousins across the sea and so tugs a little at the heart strings, but if you fade Quentin Reynolds’s commentary back up towards the end you will hear words to the effect that… “nobody needs to feel sorry for Britain, it doesn’t feel sorry for itself”.