Landfall (1949 film)

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Landfall
Landfall (1949 film).jpg
Directed by Ken Annakin
Screenplay by Talbot Jennings
Story by Gilbert Gunn
Anne Burnaby
Based on Landfall: A Channel Story
by Nevil Shute
Produced by Victor Skutezky
Starring Michael Denison
Patricia Plunkett
Kathleen Harrison
David Tomlinson
Joan Dowling
Cinematography Wilkie Cooper
Edited by Peter Graham Scott
Music by Philip Green
Production
company
Distributed by Associated British-Pathé
Release date
  • 27 October 1949 (1949-10-27)(UK)
Running time
86 minutes [1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office£141,127 (UK) [2]

Landfall is a 1949 British war film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Michael Denison, Patricia Plunkett and Kathleen Harrison. [3] The screenplay was by Talbot Jennings from an adaptation by Gilbert Gunn and Anne Burnaby of the 1940 novel Landfall: A Channel Story by Nevil Shute. [4]

Contents

Synopsis

Rick Chambers, a British Coastal Command pilot in World War II based near Portsmouth, sinks what he believes to be a German submarine, unaware that a British submarine is also in that part of the Channel. When it emerges that the British submarine has been lost with all hands, a Navy enquiry is held and the senior naval officer concludes that Rick mistakenly attacked a British submarine in a friendly-fire incident. While the enquiry finds that the captain of the submarine was principally at fault for poor navigation, Rick is officially criticised for having failed to properly visually identify his target. Although his commanding officer disagrees with the court's finding and encourages Rick to stay with the squadron, Rick requests another posting.

Rick's fiancée Mona Stevens, a barmaid, overhears information that might help uncover what really happened to the British submarine. She reports this information to the Navy, who re-open the investigation and find that a German submarine was also in the area and torpedoed the British submarine, taking up its location and running on the surface, until it was spotted and sunk by Rick.

In the interim, Rick's new posting is a dangerous flying duty, testing a new type of guided bomb. After his aircraft crashes and he is critically injured, he is met at the hospital by the naval captain who originally ruled against him, and he tells Rick that he has been exonerated in the re-opened enquiry.

Cast

Production

Landfall was one of two films Ken Annakin made on loan out from Gainsborough Pictures to Associated British, the other being Double Confession (1950). Annakin wrote "Neither had very good scripts, nor exciting casting... except for Peter Lorre" who was in Double Confession. [5]

Reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Competent but unexciting story of some 1940 adventures in Coastal Command: Air Force (synthetic jollity) and Naval (strong, silent service) backgrounds interspersed with heavily humorous excerpts from the familiar home life of Kathleen Harrison." [6]

Variety wrote: "It is nothing more than a soap opera replete with cliché and contrived incidents. It unsuccessfully mixes war heroics and romance, with a slight comment on the breakdown of England's social caste system." [7]

The Radio Times gave the film two out of five stars, calling it a "dainty item from a vanished era of British war movies." [8]

TV Guide rated the film similarly, concluding that "[a]dequate performances are marred by a script burdened with some soap opera dramatics." [9]

References

  1. ↑ "LANDFALL – British Board of Film Classification". www.bbfc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 24 May 2018.
  2. ↑ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p. 490
  3. ↑ "Landfall". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  4. ↑ "Landfall (1949)". Archived from the original on 10 March 2016.
  5. ↑ Annakin, Ken (2001). So you wanna be a director?. Tomahawk Press. p. 42. ISBN   9780953192656.
  6. ↑ "Landfall" . The Monthly Film Bulletin . 16 (181): 199. 1 January 1949. ProQuest   1305810152.
  7. ↑ "Landfall" . Variety . 190 (10): 22. 13 May 1953. ProQuest   1016974140.
  8. ↑ "Landfall – review – cast and crew, movie star rating and where to watch film on TV and online". Radio Times.
  9. ↑ "Landfall". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on 24 May 2018.
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