One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942)
Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

One of Our Aircraft is Missing original movie poster
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One of Our Aircraft is Missing' is the product of one of the best British film making teams of the 1940s, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The makers of such unusual and memorable films as `The Red Shoes' and `Black Narcissus', Powell and Pressburger's films were never like anyone else's. Their approach to a wartime propaganda film made by the the Ministry of Information with the co-operation of the exiled Dutch Government in London was equally different.

One of Our Aircraft is Missing' begins dramatically with the crash of an RAF Vickers Wellington bomber designated "B for Bertie", and then flashes back to the events leading thereto. The viewer is introduced to the six members of crew, and learns that they had actually bailed out of their crippled aircraft prior to the crash, landing in Nazi-occupied Holland. The remainder of the story describes their escape back to Britain.

What makes this film different from the conventional Hollywood treatment of similar subject matter is that `One of Our Aircraft is Missing' stresses the courage and resourcefulness of the Dutch civilians rather than the aircrew. Indeed, it's made manifestly clear that the British crew could never have escaped without the assistance of a great many ordinary Dutch people of all ages and both sexes.

The first 30 minutes are utterly riveting, then the film instantly looses steam.

One of the twin engines on "B for Bertie" is damaged during a mission attacking the Mercedes Benz works in Stuttgart. While over flying western Holland on their way back to England the damaged engine starts to give out & the order to bailout is given. After the crew bailout the damaged engine starts to function normally & the abandoned aircraft crosses the North Sea on its own before crashing into an Electrical pylon somewhere in England. The now downed crewmen stranded in Nazi occupied Holland regroup but lose one of their number in the air. They are discovered by a group of Dutch children who take them to their parents. The parents link to the Dutch underground and begin to facilitate their escape – but it is a perilous journey. The film is dedicated to the Dutch farmers who died helping British airmen escape the Germans.

Made during the war, the realistic and low key nature of this film is perhaps understandable, as is the consistently shouted theme of ordinary people making a heroic difference. The plot on paper is interesting as it does involve sacrifice and bravery from ordinary farmers, however the delivery is surprisingly un-involving. The film is very slow for the most part, an impression that isn't helped by having a large proportion of the dialogue in Dutch. I know this helps the realism & for me this was only a minor problem as I lived in the Rheinland part of Germany which borders the Netherlands for many years & with my knowledge of German I can follow Dutch up to a very limited point but for most English speakers, without the aid of subtitles (which there aren't any) minutes could pass without understanding a word.

The realism of this film is fair to those it is dedicated to, but they aren't given characters to speak of. The RAF officers are well established with backgrounds but the Dutch and the Germans are all pretty one-dimensional and not developed with one or two exceptions.

The cast are hard working and mostly quite good. The RAF officers have all the best roles and best lines, while the Dutch characters are not given enough to do – any film where Peter Ustinov comes off looking bland and ordinary has done something wrong!

Overall I wanted to enjoy this film more, and it's core story and message to a wartime population is worthy at least. However the distant delivery and lack of strong characters detracts from what could have been a classic film. I enjoyed the film but it is impossible to overlook it's flaws.

One Of Aircraft Is Missing was hastily made but it won Powell and Pressburger two Oscar nominations, and also enabled them to set in place the deal with Rank which granted them the freedom to make the more fantastically wayward The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp. Vivid characters, energetic action and the film's documentary style introduce a sense of urgency that counters the occasionally drifting plot, and there's a clear sense of the complex emotional strains affecting the British and the Dutch as trust threatens to evaporate between - and within - the two factions.

It's tempting now to cast a suspicious eye over government-sponsored films released during the war and to search for evidence of compromise and coercion. In fact there was nothing unusual about filmmakers responding in this way to the conflict. Noel Coward did his bit with In Which We Serve, also released in 1942, and the work of British documentary filmmaking's first auteur Humphrey Jennings - an artist and master of the form regardless of his attachment to any agenda - was produced under the Crown Film Unit.

Whatever the circumstances of the film's funding and production, One Of Our Aircraft demonstrates a subtlety, sophistication and ambition not usually associated with state-sponsored propaganda. The script has plenty of the directors' trademark sharp wit, but hovering over it all is a sense of the grim choices - or lack of them - that come with war. Placed next to David Niven's dead airman communing with angels in A Matter Of Life And Death, One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing is a modest entry in the Powell and Pressburger canon but, in it's way, life and death are still what it's all about.

From a historical perspective, this film is of interest due to its depiction of RAF Bomber Command operations during the early part of World War II, as well as details of the interior of the famous Wellington Bomber. It is also worth seeing as an early example of the work of legendary film director David Lean (`Oliver Twist', `The Bridge on the River Kwai', `Lawrence of Arabia', Doctor Zhivago', Ryan's Daughter', etc.), who served as film editor. Last but by no means least an early performance by a very young (and thin) Peter Ustinov who makes his screen debut here as a Dutch priest, who acts in Dutch and Latin as well as English. All in all, this film is well worth a look.

The scene when an RAF Vickers Wellington bomber "B for Bertie" is damaged by anti-aircraft fire while attacking the Mercedes Benz works in Stuttgart can be seen on you tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwkf48aIxmw.

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing Trivia:

• The title "One of Our Aircraft Is Missing" is taken from a phrase that was often heard in contemporary news reports in wartime Britain after a bombing raid, "one [or often more] of our aircraft failed to return", which originally served as the working title of the screenplay but was then altered to a less-downbeat form.

• Much of the outdoor sequences set in the Netherlands were shot at Boston in Lincolnshire.

• The film is mentioned in the episode of Dad's Army "The Lion Has Phones." When a member of the platoon tries to ring up GHQ, he mistakenly gets the cinema, the operator there tells him that the film is on. There is a mention of Eric Portman and Googie Withers. A poster for the film is on display at the cinema. Correspondingly, in the episode of Dad's Army, "Time on My Hands," Pike knows how to open a parachute because, he says, he's seen it done in One of Our Aircraft is Missing. Footnote re the above mentoioned Dad's Army: a genuine comedy classic telling the story of the fictitious Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard during the Second World War which ran on BBC television from 1968 to 1977 & has since deservedly become part of British television folklore.

• Actor Emrys Jones (Bob Ashley, wireless operator and footballer) was an international soccer player before the war. The character was made to be a footballer because he could already play well.

• The extra squadron members were all active members of XVI Squadron RAF.

• One day Noel Coward visited the set and after seeing how the crew staged and wrapped up an elaborate sequence in about 2 hours decided to use most of them on his film "In Which We Serve" (1942).

• Notably, there is no scored music, Powell deliberately strived for "naturalism" relying on natural sounds that would be heard by the characters.

• The film cost an estimated £70,000 in 1942 the equivalent of £2.5 million today.
  Running time UK: 102 minutes
  US: 82 minutes

"You see. That's what you're doing for us. Can you hear them running for shelter? Can you understand what that means to all the occupied countries? To enslaved people, having it drummed into their ears that the Germans are masters of the Earth. Seeing these masters running for shelter. Seeing them crouching under tables. And hearing that steady hum night after night. That noise which is oil for the burning fire in our hearts". Dutch underground heroine Jo de Vries: [Speaking to the downed aircrew as RAF bombers approach]

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