- Jubilee offer: spend £10 or more on any product sold by Amazon.co.uk on or before June 6 and you can buy The Diamond Jubilee A Classical Celebration Album for just £2.50 Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Synopsis
A distinguished British cast, headed by 1950s heart-throb Dirk Bogarde, leads I'll Met By Moonlight--a Powell and Pressburger war film which is based on a true story. British agents conspire with local partisans to kidnap a prominent German General during the occupation of Crete in WWII. They decide to bring the officer to a beachhead, where he'll be transported to Egypt, but the Germans don't take this lying down and their method of revenge capture the Brits by surprise.
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: Eschewing the Shakespearean original title (it's a quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream), the British Ill Met by Moonlight was released stateside as Night Ambush. This superb Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger concoction is set during World War II on the island of Crete. Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley play Major Paddy Leigh Fermer and Captain Billy Stanley Moss, two British officers whose job it is to kidnap Nazi general Karl Kreipe (Marius Goring) and spirit him off to Cairo. The motive of this mission is to weaken German morale on Crete and to provide hope to the enslaved locals. With the help of a group of resistance fighters, Fermer and Moss manage to trap the general; now they must transport their captive back to their own lines, avoiding German patrols every inch of the way. Originally 104 minutes, Ill Met by Moonlight was cut to 93 minutes by its American distributor. ...Ill Met by Moonlight ( Intelligence Service ) ( Night Ambush )
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
108 of 108 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
One of my favourite WWII films so I admit to this being a thoroughly biased review. It's one of those films that I can watch over and over. Dirk Bogarde stars as Patrick Leigh-Fermor who, coincidentally, was given a knighthood in the last Queen's Honours List for his wartime exploits, re-created in this film. Working with his beloved Cretan resistance members it is the now famous story of how, with Major “Billy” Moss (played by David Oxley) they kidnapped German General Karl Kreipe and smuggled him off the island by boat. Filmed in glorious B&W on location, the film owes much of its atmosphere to some haunting music by Mikis Theodorakis (Zorba The Greek). It is told with wit and humour that is never allowed to overcome the basic tension of the plot. Highly recommended.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Very good 'Period Piece' based upon a true story showcasing the emergent talent of Dirk Bogarde as an alternative to the famous 'Doctor' films he made during the 1950s and early 60's before he became more 'arty' than entertainment biased within European cinema. (Some of his films during this period were very good, others in my humble opinion were not!).
As mentioned in other reviews, colour case but film is B&W and better for it as the transfer to DVD is sympathetic, evocative and of a high technical quality.This is not a 'Blockbuster' it's just a modest, simple, pleasing and most enjoyable 'British wet Sunday afternoon' indulgence.
(Slight 'location' spoiler coming up).
The film was shot in the South of France in the Maritime Alps behind the directors house! Its so well done though that you really would not know if you had not already read Bogarde's truly wonderful and outstanding autobiographical books, better it must be said than much of his cinematic output.
He was indeed a truly gifted and much missed actor and author.
As mentioned in other reviews, colour case but film is B&W and better for it as the transfer to DVD is sympathetic, evocative and of a high technical quality.This is not a 'Blockbuster' it's just a modest, simple, pleasing and most enjoyable 'British wet Sunday afternoon' indulgence.
(Slight 'location' spoiler coming up).
The film was shot in the South of France in the Maritime Alps behind the directors house! Its so well done though that you really would not know if you had not already read Bogarde's truly wonderful and outstanding autobiographical books, better it must be said than much of his cinematic output.
He was indeed a truly gifted and much missed actor and author.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
what a pleasent surprise it was to see this gem of a movie released onto dvd. Great picture quality and an excellent soundtrack by Mikis Theodorakis. The storyline is known, but highly recommended for those with an interest in Crete or wartime Greece. Dirk Bogard plays the roll superbly. What a fine actor he was ! Grab a copy while its still available. You won't regret it.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
How brave they were.
When you see films like this and realise that the story is completely true, it makes you shake your head in wonder. Read more
Published 7 months ago by stunsail
below par
This film is one of the less successful products of the Powell-Pressburger collaboration. Since the story of the abduction of the German general Karl Kreipe, based on reality, is... Read more
Published 8 months ago by lycidas
Nicely understated
A true story about a group of British agents and Greek resistance fighters performing an audacious operation right under the noses of the cream of the German armed forces. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Shrewlord
Great World War 2 Thriller
I have seen quite a few Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger movies, such as "The life and death of colonel blimp" and "A matter of life and death" but this underrated classic is... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mrs. Marilyn A. Rice
Third Rate
`Based On A True Story' is no mitigation for this shallow piece of self-congratulatory pap. Bogarde plays a kind of Sidney Carton - Scarlet Pimpernel figure, with the sort of cooly... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Seatinthestalls
great film
This film is based on a true story in world war 2 it was really enjoyable and i have now bought the book from amazon which was written by one of the soldiers who kidnapped the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mrs. Marie Lamb
A Nice Layback War Film
I bought this DVD because I like Dirk Bogart and war films.
This film has a simple storyline about the kidnapping of a German officer by the
British force with the aids... Read more
This film has a simple storyline about the kidnapping of a German officer by the
British force with the aids... Read more
Published 11 months ago by B. Ying
Ill Met By Moonlight
It's many years since I saw this film and had been after it for a couple of years. Based in Crete on true events where the officer commanding German occupying forces was kidnapped... Read more
Published 13 months ago by dj
The joy of socks
This film - Powell and Pressburger's last - is a surprisingly restrained little piece, based on the wartime exploits of Patrick Leigh Fermor (in finest Scarlet Pimpernel style) on... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Kenneth F. Mcara
Excellent quality
The print quality is excellent. ITV seem to routinely manage something the big US studios too often fail to achieve - a high quality release of a classic movie. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Julian Hughes
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
