Target for Tonight **** (1941, dir Harry Watt) – Classic Movie Review 4693

‘Actually filmed under fire! The RAF is its cast! The RAF filmed it!’

Director Harry Watt’s renowned documentary of the events leading to the carrying out of an RAF night bombing raid on Germany was made at Blackheath Studios in London for the Crown Film Unit in 1941. It was partly actually filmed under fire and partly re-created.

The low level mission by a Wellington bomber on an oil storage facility by the Rhine begins with the reconnaissance mission, leading to the attack through anti-aircraft fire on an oil refinery, and the perilous journey home to safety.

It won a special Honorary Academy Award ‘for its vivid and dramatic presentation of the heroism of the RAF in the documentary film’ in 1942 and is now a deservedly much admired wartime British classic. The RAF airmen are not actors, of course, but they do well in the re-creations.

Flying Officer Charles Pickard, who was seconded from No. 311 (Czech) Squadron to play the part of the pilot, was killed in the Mosquito raid on Amiens Prison later in the war. The second pilot is played by Gordon Woollatt, who survived the war.

Alfred Hitchcock was film editor on the US version.

Harry Watt writes the script with B Cooper. It runs 48 minutes. It was released by the Ministry of Information. It was also filmed on location at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, and at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4693

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