Against the Wind *** (1948, Robert Beatty, Simone Signoret, Jack Warner, John Slater, Gordon Jackson, Paul Dupuis) – Classic Movie Review 10,940

Director Charles Crichton’s 1948 intelligent, if downbeat espionage, sabotage and resistance thriller Against the Wind, set in wartime occupied Belgium, comes from Ealing Studios, is produced by Michael Balcon, and is well acted by the reliable British cast, with Simone Signoret a welcome visitor in her first English-language film role.

The World War Two yarn about a spy called Max Cronk (Jack Warner effectively cast against type) among the saboteurs being trained in wartime London to battle Nazis in Belgium is unoriginal. But the credible acting from the appealing, experienced Ealing Studios ensemble cast and Crichton’s tight documentary-style direction bring it up looking fresh, even now.

Robert Beatty stars as refugee Belgian Roman Catholic priest Father Philip Elliott, who reports for training at the wartime British Special Operations Executive, a secret school in London for spies and saboteurs behind German lines. He and two others parachute into Belgium on a mission to destroy a records office, leading to the German capture of an important resistance leader. Then four more agents – Emile Meyer (John Slater), Max Cronk (Jack Warner), Scotty Duncan (Gordon Jackson) and Michèle (Simone Signoret) – go in on a rescue mission, but Cronk is a traitor.

Writers: J Elder Wills (story), Michael Pertwee (adaptation), T E B Clarke (screenplay) and Paul Vincent Carroll (additional dialogue).

The title quotes Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron: ‘Yet, Freedom! Yet thy banner, torn, but flying. Streams like the thunder-storm against the wind.’

It is shot at Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, and in Belgium.

The producers gratefully acknowledged the co-operation of the Belgian Ministry of National Defence, the Belgian Ministry of the Interior), the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Belges, the Air Ministry and the British War Office.

Also in the cast are Paul Dupuis as Jacques Picquart, Gisèle Préville as Julie, James Robertson Justice as Ackerman, André Morell as Abbott, Eugene Deckers as Marcel van Hecke, John Slater as Emile Meyer, Peter Illing as Andrew, Sybille Binder as Florence Malou, Andrew Blackett as Frankie, Arthur Lawrence as Captain Verreker, Hélène Hansen, Gilbert Davis, Leo de Pokorny, Rory MacDermot, Kenneth Villiers, Kenneth Hyde, Olaf Olsen, Philo Hauser, Martin Bradley, Sheila Carty, Margot Lassner, Guy Deghy, Jean Pierre Hambye, George Kersen, Duncan Lewis, Robert Wyndham, and Bert Simms.

Against the Wind is directed by Charles Crichton, runs 96 minutes, is made by Ealing Studios, is released by General Film Distributors (GFD) (1948) (UK) and Eagle-Lion Films (1949) (US), is written by J Elder Wills (story), Michael Pertwee (adaptation), T E B Clarke (screenplay) and Paul Vincent Carroll (additional dialogue), is shot in black and white by Lionel Banes, is produced by Michael Balcon and Sidney Cole (associate producer), is scored by Leslie Bridgewater and designed by J Elder Wills.

The music is played by The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Ernest Irving.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,940

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