It Happened Here **** (1964, Pauline Murray, Sebastian Shaw, Bart Allison) – Classic Movie Review 11,244

‘The Story of Hitler’s England. What would have happened if the German Army had crossed the English Channel.’ 

Writer-directors Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo’s intelligent, partly-amateur 1964 black and white film by two clever, very young British film-makers speculates about the way it could have been if the Nazis had attacked Britain in 1940 as they had planned. The Brits are generally brave under Nazi mistreatment, but a nurse (Pauline Murray) is suspected of collaboration.

It Happened Here is extremely well done on a tiny budget and filming over seven years, with good attention to the period minutiae. It is very enjoyable if you do not expect Hollywood acting and budgets.

In the cast are Sebastian Shaw, Pauline Murray, Bart Allison, Fiona Lekland, Honor Fehrson, Peter Dyneley, Reginald Marsh and Nicolette Bernard.

Brownlow and Mollo wrote a book, How It Happened Here, and there was a TV documentary in 1974, It Happened Here Again.

Brownlow went on to write the definitive history of silent movies, The Parade’s Gone By, and then to rescue many of the endangered films with his annual Thames Silents then Channel 4 Silents.

It runs 97 minutes (director’s cut) but British versions before 1993 ran 93 minutes after the distributors deleted a scene showing real neo-Nazis expounding their ideology, restored for the 1993 Connoisseur Video release.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,244

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