- Directors: Alberto Cavalcanti
- Region: All Regions
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B005WB5JP8
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WENT THE DAY WELL is a solidly constructed wartime melodrama. Actually, the film covers 72 hours in the life of the small British village of Bramley Green, which serves as the focal point for an attempted German invasion. Immediately upon parachuting in the community, vicious Nazi officer Ortier (Basil Sydney) makes contact with local Fifth Columnist Oliver Wileford (Leslie Banks), using the film's British title as their password. Fortunately, Democracy is preserved when postmistress-telephone operator Mrs. Collins (Muriel George), picking up on a simple clue inadvertently left behind by the well-disguised Germans, alerts her neighbors of impending danger. The British home guardsmen and German soldiers seen in the film were drawn from the ranks of of the real-life Gloucestershire Regiment, who volunteered their services for this patriotic morale-booster.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
82 of 84 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
During WWII, the villagers of Bromley End do what they must to defend not just themselves, but England
2 Jun 2007
Format:DVD
Went the Day Well? is one of the British war movies made during WWII that were meant to strengthen morale and inspire steadfastness. The little English village of Bromley End welcomes a large number of Royal Engineers who are to work on a secret project. However, the Royal Engineers in reality are English-speaking German soldiers in British uniforms, parachuted into England to set up a counter radar apparatus which will disrupt England's radar network.
Gradually the villagers begin to suspect things aren't right, and then realize what they're dealing with. The Germans cordon off the village and show their true, ruthless nature. The villagers need to break through the cordon to alert authorities and get help. They also decide they must take action themselves to stop the Germans. This is complicated because the village houses a traitor. The climax is the Battle of Bromley End, with British Home Guard troops arriving while the Germans, attacking the manor house where they must set up their equipment, are held off by the brave men and women of the village.
You'll recognize some fine actors: Leslie Banks, David Farrar, Thora Hird, Basil Sydney, Mervyn Johns among others. The film is a well-constructed and effective bit of wartime home-front propaganda.
Gradually the villagers begin to suspect things aren't right, and then realize what they're dealing with. The Germans cordon off the village and show their true, ruthless nature. The villagers need to break through the cordon to alert authorities and get help. They also decide they must take action themselves to stop the Germans. This is complicated because the village houses a traitor. The climax is the Battle of Bromley End, with British Home Guard troops arriving while the Germans, attacking the manor house where they must set up their equipment, are held off by the brave men and women of the village.
You'll recognize some fine actors: Leslie Banks, David Farrar, Thora Hird, Basil Sydney, Mervyn Johns among others. The film is a well-constructed and effective bit of wartime home-front propaganda.
65 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
An engaging and suspense-laden drama based on the notion that Germans infiltrate a small English village as the vanguard for an invasion of the country. Although the characters are by and large stereotypical (redoubtable lady of the manor, plucky land-girls, fragile but courageous vicar's daughter etc), the film is a fascinating snap-shot of techniques designed to keep the audience on the edge of their seats, and despite the black-and-white film and the classic RP accents, it achieves that completely. Both my nine-year old son and I were enthralled by the film. A tightly-scripted, well-crafted tale based on a Graham Greene short story that serves its purpose and continues to entertain, 65 years on.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This is a little Known Classic Piece of "Propaganda as Entertainment" like the more well known "The Way Ahead". Cavalcanti keeps the pace up and the cast give full range to the Germans being "Nasty" and the British "Decent sorts"( except for Leslie Banks! ). The Graham Greene Script is simple but the Plot Exciting and before the Politcal Correctness Police start chattering bear in mind this was written and made whilst at the very Darkest hour of WW II well before America and Russia got involved.
It's worth watching just to see Dame Thora Hird Take on the SS with a Tommy Gun...they don't make them like this anymore.
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The early 1940's were never going to be easy and good 'propaganda' films were essential to the well-being of the Great British Public. Went The Day Well defines the British spirit, that of total belief that 'we would win the war'. The film opens showing an English village after the war, even though the war was very much still going on at the time this film was made, and told the story of the Germans buried on English soil. It goes on to show a typical English village in full swing during the war. It never ceases to amaze me that it really was like that, according to my parents, that a terrible thing like war was going on and yet 'normal' life continued as much as possible. The stereotypical differences between the English and German soldiers was obvious from the start - when the Germans pretended to be English they were kind, gentle and good mannered, but as soon as 'the game was up' and they had to revert back to being Germans, the nastiness of the 'hun came through powerfully. Which I assume was the whole point. I won't go into details of the story, others have already done that, but I will say that Went The Day Well is a piece of Britishness that we are all beginning to forget (sadly). The gentleness and warmth of British people, together with their unstinting belief that we would win the war, made this film such a delight. I imagine that in the cinemas at the time this Britishness was quite normal and not the big deal it would be today.
Some of the actors were not actors at all, they were army officers doing their bit. Hence the 'woodenness' of some of them. For me Harry Fowler stood out as being a real actor, in my opinion one of the best in the whole film.... Read more ›
Some of the actors were not actors at all, they were army officers doing their bit. Hence the 'woodenness' of some of them. For me Harry Fowler stood out as being a real actor, in my opinion one of the best in the whole film.... Read more ›
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
'Went the Day Well?' and Jennings' 'The Silent Village' are the only two films made within the war to deal with the invasion of England. Directed by the Italian director Alberto Cavalcanti and produced by Ealing Studios, 'Went the Day Well?' was a commercial feature based loosely upon Graham Greene's fictional short story 'The Lieutenant Died Last'. It details the landing of an advance guard of the German invasion on the Whitsun weekend of 1942 in the idyllic village of Bramley End. Dressed as sappers they attempt to set up equipment to disrupt Britain's radiolocation defences, yet are found out by the villagers and subsequently stopped.
The film links well with the Ministry of Information's prerogatives of the time. From 1941 the MoI sought to illustrate the 'people's war', the actions of the population of Britain independent of class, age, gender or regionality (hence a variety of accents within the village) leading to success. That many of the characters make sacrifices emphasises the group heroics the British population are capable of once roused into action. Perhpaps most importantly however, the film sets out to stress the danger of complacency which was thought to be in abundance in Britain at the time. It sought to dispel the myth that invasion would not occur and to invigorate suspicion within the public.
The characteristic violence of the film was a useful mechanism to instill such messages into the public at the time. The close ups of the faces of the villagers when they kill, the slow down of time when Nora (Valerie Taylor) kills Oliver (Leslie Banks) and the murderous actions of the Nazis are all mechanisms designed to cause shock.
... Read more ›Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
War curiosity
Great period drama which is surprisingly gritty in places. The story of German soldiers dressed as Tommys and taking over a small English village is a good story. Read more
Published 2 months ago by jaybro
5.0 out of 5 stars
WENT THE DAY VERY WELL
What a superb piece of suspenseful entertainment this film is. A sleepy village invaded by the enemy dressed as British Soldiers. Read more
Published 11 months ago by ROBIN
5.0 out of 5 stars
As good as they say it is!
Had wanted to see this film for a while now, having read various reviews when it was restored and screened at The South Bank. Read more
Published 18 months ago by leeds lad
5.0 out of 5 stars
Went the day well?
This is a very engaging film, set in the dark days of World War 2. It captures the the courage, resourcefulness and resilience of a rural community held captive by a ruthless... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Gwaihir
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not quite there
The story is a good idea - Graham Greene after all - but the execution has always struck me as strangely stilted and amateurish, as if they had to borrow the vicar's drama group to... Read more
Published 23 months ago by A. J. W. Daglish
5.0 out of 5 stars
WW II Propaganda Film Well Done!
This is a well done wartime fantasy that made great sense in WW II and was probably meant to sensitize the British people to any odd occurrences in their lives during the war. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2011 by Daniel O. Schwartz
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Masterpiece of Early British Cinema
Cavalcanti assured his place in cinema history with this unique and splendid film {see also 'Dead of Night'}. Read more
Published on 26 Nov 2010 by Sean M Duggan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Proud to be British
I saw this film as a boy over fifty years ago, it made a lasting impression on me. I realised what we had been fighting against in the war, which had recently finished. Read more
Published on 28 Oct 2010 by S. Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars
dvd film review
film arrived well packed and in good time.enjoyed the film very much.i am very pleased that i bought it.i have been wanting to see it for a while.
Published on 31 Aug 2010 by Mr. J. A. Page
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Village At War
This is the most interesting film to have been made in Britain during the Second World War. It is also more genuinely shocking than many 'front-line' war films. Read more
Published on 26 Aug 2010 by M. J. Nelson
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