''Ill Met by Moonlight'' (1957), released in the USA as ''Night Ambush'' (which is eleven minutes shorter than the British release), is a film by the British writer-director-producer team of

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...

and Emeric Pressburger, and the last movie they made together through their production company "The Archers". The film, which stars

Dirk Bogarde Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as '' Doctor in the House'' (1954) for the Rank Org ...

and features

Marius Goring Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...

David Oxley David Oxley (7 November 1920 – 30 October 1985) was an English actor who made many film, television and stage appearances over a 28-year period. He is best known for portraying Gilles de Rais in '' Saint Joan'' (1957), Sir Hugo Baskerville in ' ...

, and

Cyril Cusack Cyril James Cusack (26 November 1910 – 7 October 1993) was an Irish stage and screen actor with a career that spanned more than 70 years. During his lifetime, he was considered one of Ireland’s finest thespians, and was renowned for his in ...

, is based on the 1950 book ''Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe'' by

W. Stanley Moss Ivan William Stanley Moss MC (15 June 1921 – 9 August 1965), commonly known as W. Stanley Moss or Billy Moss, was a British army officer in World War II, and later a successful writer, broadcaster, journalist and traveller. He served with t ...

, which is an account of events during the author's service on

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as an agent of the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its p ...

(SOE). The title is a quotation from Shakespeare's ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict a ...

'', and the book features the young agents' capture and evacuation of the German general

Heinrich Kreipe Karl Heinrich Georg Ferdinand Kreipe (5 June 1895 – 14 June 1976) was a German career soldier who served in both World War I and World War II. While leading German forces in occupied Crete in April 1944, he was abducted by British SOE officers ...

Plot

During

, the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

island of

occupied ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octobe ...

by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

. British officers Major Patrick Leigh Fermor DSO (

) and Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC (

) of the

(SOE) land on the island and meet with other British agents and members of the

Cretan resistance The Cretan resistance ( el, Κρητική Αντίσταση) was a resistance movement against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II. Part of the larger Greek ...

. In April 1944, they kidnap General Kreipe (

), the German commander of the island's occupying forces and, in disguise, drive his car through a number of German checkpoints until they abandon it and set off on foot with the General. Travelling mainly by night across mountainous territory, the group has to evade surveillance by German search parties looking for the General, but is given assistance by townspeople and other resistance partisans. Along the way, Kreipe seems to be resigned to having to cooperate, but he leaves personal tokens at several stops as clues for searchers to follow. He also feigns an injury to his shoulder to slow down the group's progress. After a final push to reach a secluded cove on the far side of the island where they are to be picked up by the Royal Navy, the group finds the area occupied by German troops. A young boy travelling with the group is asked by the British officers to deliver a message to local partisans, but Kreipe tries to bribe the boy into going to the German camp, telling him that if the boy delivers a coin known to belong to the General, the Germans will give him a pair of boots. The boy seems to fall for the ruse when the group watches the shore from above and sees him going to the German camp. Instead of heading up the hills to engage with the British and retrieve the General, however, the Germans march into a valley where a partisan ambush is waiting for them. The British and Cretans, along with Kreipe, who has stopped pretending that he was injured, arrive at the beach and finally are picked up by the British ship that is to transport them to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

, the Middle East headquarters of British forces. On board the vessel, Fermor and Moss return the items that the General had planted during their trek, comparing them to the "breadcrumbs" left by Hansel in the story of

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; german: Hänsel und Gretel ) is a German fairy tale collected by the German Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister. Hansel ...

and comparing the Cretan Resistance, once disdained by the General, as the "birds" who take the breadcrumbs in the story.

Cast

as Major Patrick "Paddy" Leigh Fermor aka "Philedem" *

as Major General

as Captain W. Stanley "Billy" Moss, M.C. *Dimitri Andreas as Niko Soldan Emeris *

as Captain Sandy Rendel *

Laurence Payne Laurence Stanley Payne (5 June 1919 – 23 February 2009) was an English actor and novelist. Early life Payne was born in London. His father died when he was three years old, and he and his elder brother and sister were brought up by their ...

as Manoli *

Wolfe Morris Wolfe Morris (born Woolf Steinberg, 5 January 1925 – 21 July 1996) was an English actor, who played character roles on stage, television and in feature films from the 1950s until the 1990s. He made his film debut in ''Ill Met by Moonlight''. ...

as George *

Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...

as Andoni Zoidakis *

John Cairney John Cairney (born 16 February 1930) is a Scottish film and television actor who is well known to audiences in Scotland and internationally through his one-man shows on Robert Burns, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Service, Charles Rennie Macki ...

as Elias *Rowland Bartrop as Micky Akoumianakis *

Brian Worth Brian Worth (30 July 1914 – 25 August 1978) was an English actor, known for '' Scrooge'' (1951), ''The Man in the White Suit'' (1951) and ''An Inspector Calls'' (1954). He died on 25 August 1978 aged 64. Educated in Britain and America, ...

as Stratis Saviolkis *

Paul Stassino Phaedros Stassinos (1930 – 28 June 2012) was a Greek Cypriot actor whose international stage name was Paul Stassino. Early life Stassino was born in Platres and grew up in nearby Limassol, but spent most of his acting career in England. He ...

as Yanni Katsias *Adeeb Assaly as Zahari Cast notes: *Marius Goring had appeared in three other Powell and Pressburger films: ''

The Spy in Black ''The Spy in Black'' (US: ''U-Boat 29'') is a 1939 British film, and the first collaboration between the British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They were brought together by Alexander Korda to make the World War I spy thril ...

'' (1939), '' A Matter of Life and Death'' (1946) and '' The Red Shoes'' (1948). Goring replaced

Curt Jürgens Kurt is a male given name of Germanic or Turkish origin. ''Kurt'' or ''Curt'' originated as short forms of the Germanic Conrad, depending on geographical usage, with meanings including counselor or advisor. In Turkish, Kurt means "Wolf" and is ...

, who was the original choice to play the part of General Kreipe. *

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultim ...

and

David McCallum David Keith McCallum Jr. (born 19 September 1933) is a Scottish actor and musician. He first gained recognition in the 1960s for playing secret agent Illya Kuryakin in the television series '' The Man from U.N.C.L.E''. In recent years, McCall ...

have small parts: Lee as a German officer in the dentist scene, and McCallum, in his film debut, as a sailor on the ship that picks up the group. Lee's part was edited out of the 1959 American re-release of the film. A "John Houseman" in the cast does not appear to be the well-known actor and director

John Houseman John Houseman (born Jacques Haussmann; September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988) was a Romanian-born British-American actor and producer of theatre, film, and television. He became known for his highly publicized collaboration with directo ...

Production

Emeric Pressburger had read and bought the rights to W. Stanley Moss's book in 1950, but production would not begin for another six years. Following the success of ''The Battle of the River Plate'' (1956, American title: ''Pursuit of the Graf Spee''), The Archers agreed to a one-film contract with the

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distribut ...

, but disagreements between Powell and Pressburger over that contract and aspects of the film production contributed to the final breakup of The Archers as a production company. In ''Million Dollar Movie'' (1992), the second volume of Michael Powell's memoirs, he describes ''Ill Met by Moonlight'' as one of The Archers' "greatest failures," despite the film's financial success. Part of his unhappiness is attributed to Pressburger's screenplay, but he also describes conflicts with Rank's studio bosses over casting, film format, and locations. Dirk Bogarde was eventually cast as Fermor, despite Powell's misgivings, and the filming was done in

VistaVision VistaVision is a higher resolution, widescreen variant of the 35 mm motion picture film format which was created by engineers at Paramount Pictures in 1954. Paramount never used anamorphic processes such as 2.55: 1, CinemaScope but refi ...

but in black-and-white. Cyprus was experiencing armed insurgency at the time, so filming took place at

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to t ...

in England, with location shooting in the

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; oc, Aups Maritims; it, Alpi Marittime, "Maritime Alps") is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, ...

in France and Italy, and on the

Côte d'Azur The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from ...

in France. Both

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's great ...

and

Xan Fielding Alexander Wallace Fielding (26 November 1918 – 19 August 1991) was a British author, translator, journalist and traveller, who served as a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent in Crete, France and the East Asia during World War II. The pu ...

were present on the location shots in Alpes-Maritime as advisors. The movie's score by Greek composer

Mikis Theodorakis Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis ( el, Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης ; 29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films ''Zorba the Greek'' (1964), '' Z'' ...

, who had been raised on the island of Crete, was his first for motion pictures. Watching the movie again years later, Powell complained that he "was surprised by how bad the film was," happy or at least content with the setting and music but especially disappointed in the performances of the lead actors and his own direction, which "concentrated so much on creating a Greek atmosphere that owellhad no time, or invention for anything else." Although Powell was especially unhappy with Bogarde's performance, Patrick Leigh Fermor expressed great satisfaction with Bogarde's representation of him.

Box office

The film was the seventh most popular movie at the British box office in 1957.Anderson, Lindsay and Dent, David. "Time For New Ideas." ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' (8 January 1958) 9. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 11 July 2012.

In popular culture

The story was affectionately parodied by

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Colonial India, where he spent his ...

in the 1957 ''

Goon Show ''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 1 ...

'' episode, "Ill Met by Goonlight".

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Christie, Ian. ''Arrows of Desire: the films of

and Emeric Pressburger''. London: Faber & Faber, 1994. . 163pp (illus. filmog. bibliog. index). * Fermor, Patrick Leigh. ''Words of Mercury''. John Murray, 2004. . * Moss, W. Stanley. ''Ill Met by Moonlight''. London: Harrap, 1950. . * Moss, W. Stanley. ''A War of Shadows''. London: T.V. Boardman, 1952. OCLC: 2057976. 240pp (illus. 21 cm)

* Michael Powell, Powell, Michael. ''A Life in Movies: An Autobiography''. London: Heinemann, 1986. . * Powell, Michael. ''Million Dollar Movie''. London: Heinemann, 1992. .

External links

* * * * *
Reviews and articles
at th
Powell & Pressburger Review Pages
* . Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries). {{Powell and Pressburger 1957 films 1957 war films British black-and-white films Films based on non-fiction books Films by Powell and Pressburger Films shot at Pinewood Studios World War II films based on actual events Films set in Crete Films shot in France Films shot in Italy Films scored by Mikis Theodorakis Films set in Axis-occupied Greece 1950s English-language films