Annabella

John Sutton

Lee J. Cobb

Beulah Bondi

Blanche Yurka

Howard Da Silva

Ann Codee

Marcel Dalio

Nigel De Brulier

Lucien Ballard

André Daven

Waldo Salt

John Brahm

Rohama Lee

L. Willinger

Drama

History

Tonight We Raid Calais

20th Century Fox

United States of America

CinemaSerf

John Brahm delivers a quickly paced and decently focussed tale of British commando "Carter" (John Sutton) who must make contact with the French resistance and arrange for them to help him target a vital Nazi munitions factory for RAF bombing. What now ensues is sometimes quite a potent look at just how the French were living under the rule of their conquerors. "Odette" (Annabella) and her father "Bonnard" (Lee J. Cobb) have him living with them, and must tread a very fine line between staying alive and keeping their family safe whilst helping the Briton ensure the destruction of the plant. Let's just say they don't agree on the best strategy and in desperation the jeopardy gets distinctly more real for "Carter"! Neither the writing nor the acting here is especially notable - indeed Cobb is a little fish-out-of-water, but the film itself manages to convey a degree of the menace lived under by those occupied families. It was made mid-war, so does have a certain propagandist function to it, but in the main this is quite a tautly directed wartime adventure with just a hint of a conscience.

English