50 Great War Films: 633 Squadron

 

Directed by Walter Grauman - 1964 poster

I can't remember ever having seen this movie and I quite enjoyed it. It features the build up to, and actual, mission by de Havilland Mosquito fast bombers to destroy a Norwegian factory producing fuel for Hitler's V-2 rockets. No 633 Squadron, led by Wing Commander Roy Grant (Cliff Robertson - who was an experienced pilot) is stopped from going on well-deserved leave and assigned to the project. The rocket fuel plant is sited under an overhanging cliff at the end of a long, narrow fjord littered with anti-aircraft guns. The Norwegian Resistance fighters' job is to destroy those guns. Royal Norwegian Navy Lieutenant, Erik Bergman (George Chakiris), a senior member of the Resistance, is flown over to Britain to work with the RAF in the planning. In overall charge is the formidable but upright Air Vice Marshal Davis (good old Harry Andrews!)

Although the RAF had retired the Mosquitos, eight were featured in the film, scoured from airfields around the country. The aerial scenes were shot in the Scottish Highlands, near Glencoe; only the dangerous sections were created with models.

Angus Lennie and Cliff Robertson

However, on Bergman's return to Norway to conjure up more forces, he is captured and tortured by the Gestapo. Robertson volunteers to go over and destroy their H.Q., where Berman is being held. He succeeds. Unfortunately, the Resistance fighters are then ambushed (it never explains how the Germans knew about their movements) and the RAF raid is brought forward. The mission achieve success, in that the cliff collapses, destroying the factory. It is at the cost of many aircraft and the film ends with Grant, having crash-landed, being pulled from his burning aircraft. In the book, from which the movie was made, he survived; it is not clear what happens to him in the film. Harry Andrews has the last word, when taxed with the destruction of so many men and aircraft: You can't kill a squadron.

I recognised several of the other actors: Angus Lennie (who I had just seen shot in The Great Escape!); Donald Houston (also in The Longest Day); and Michael Goodliffe (who was sadly to commit suicide in 1976). Maria Perschy was the lead female, playing Bergman's sister Hilde. As with the brief romantic interlude in The Bridge on the River Kwai, I didn't feel this aspect added anything to the movie.

The film had its world premiere on 4 June 1964 at the Leicester Square Theatre in London. There was criticism of the wooden acting (particularly the miscast George Chakiris), but the aerial scenes were regarded as spectacular. Apparently, it was the first film shot in colour in Panavision widescreen format. 633 Squadron appears on the list of "The Greatest War Films".

2000 DVD

A light-hearted aside: the torture room scene in the SS HQ, with the dominatrix, reminded me of Helga, dressed in black leathers, in the comedy series 'Ello, 'Ello!