Watchable for the famous DH Mosquito but nothing else to hold it of any merit, sadly. As others have mentioned, poor acting, sixties-style hairdressing rather than a brylcreem-and-bright-red-lipstick timeline, the film is particularly bad and lacking. Also, as mentioned, stealing far too many aerial scenes from the superior '633 Squadron' make this a dim, Sunday afternoon type of low-budget flick. Interesting plot, actually, however maybe badly executed, mention of 'Highball', not quite the normal 'bouncing bomb', but a device developed mainly for the navy, to bounce against enemy warships. The plan is thus, to 'bounce' them into the mouth of a tunnel to destroy a 'V3' rocket facility. Added to this Munroe's (McCallum) quandary of his adopted 'brother' and superior Officer 'Scotty' (David Buck), missing presumed dead, but actually among the POWS, with an amnesiac bump on his head/unaware of whom HE is.The Nazis are going to use Scotty AND the POWs as a 'Human shield', once they have got wind of the coming RAF attack. Complicating things further of course, is the fact Quint is in love now with Scotty's 'alleged' widow. It's all meant to be hush- hush, especially more so, (David Dundas - he of the 'Blue Jeans' song, years ago and featured on a Levi's advert) blabs to everyone about the POWs plight after being told NOT to - leading to a so-called bonus operation with 'Highball' and the assistance of the French Resistance to bomb the POWs compound to free them ONLY when the V3 facility is destroyed FIRST (any Highball bombs 'left over' are only THEN to be allocated to free the prisoners).This has deliberate echoes of the 'Operation Jericho mission' also executed by DH Mosquitoes. Character actor George Layton (he of the famous British 'Doctor'comedy TV series) mentions this was his first film role. Nice to see the pretty Suzanne Neve as Scotty's 'widow', Beth, but not a lot to remember this for, EXCEPT as I've said, its stealing of 633 Squadron's scenes!
... View MoreMosquito Squadron gets a very bad press, and most of it is deserved, but to be fair, if you watch it when you chip off early from work on a mid day afternoon, it delivers on quite a few levels. It is not too long so you don't get bogged down too much and its got a reasonable plot (as long as you don't compare it with Operation Crossbow and 633 Squadron - which are not only similar plot wise, but were shamelessly looted for much of their footage by this film). The romantic stuff is a total drag and some of the acting is pretty bad, also you would have to watch this alone or at best with a drunk mate, because the special effects are awful, and I hate it when my wife laughs at me because of stuff I watch! But I can forgive the acting, because it's a rare war film that gives us 'Bridge on the River Kwai' dialogue, and beside's MS is far superior in this sense to the dreadful acting in 'The Alamo' or 'Tora Tora Tora', which both had huge budgets to waste. MS is a B-Movie, lets not forget that, and much of the unfair criticism comes from people who compare the film with other late 60's war films, or boring plane spotters, when it should be watched and enjoyed as nothing more than a boy's own type adventure. But if you are willing to overlook the 1968 look of the film and the pointless tank battle at the end, you will be rewarded. Give me this film and a 4-pack of Stella on a wet afternoon, and i'll be happy!
... View MoreSquadron Leader Quint Munroe is struggling to come to terms with the probable death of his friend and comrade, Sq. Leader David Scott. After choosing to leave the squadron, Quint is approached to take part in a crucial mission to bomb a château in occupied France that houses a deadly German flying bomb factory. The top secret mission will involve using a new land bouncing bomb that needs to be delivered with the ultimate precision, which is why they want the respected Quint to lead the assault. To further complicate matters, Quint starts to fall in love with David's widow Beth, will Quint take up the task?, can he succeed?, just why have the Germans dropped a parcel on base containing a roll of film?.It's not very good, that's really all there is to it, Mosquito Squadron is a collage of far better films put together to make one complete whole. David McCallum, bless him, 6 years after he was integral to The Great Escape's success, he is found sadly lacking as a lead actor asked to carry a film. Charles Gray proves that Blofeld really was a career high and the rest of the cast cover themselves in mud. Director Boris Sagal shows that he should have stayed at doing TV work, whilst the writers i hope were embarrassed to have been paid for their work on this one.So why after all my moaning do i give it a generous 3/10?, well the model work is half decent and Frank Cordell's score is deserving of far better, whilst editor John S. Smith should be applauded for his cheek. But really this is one to avoid, the sort of film that was shown prior to the main event in a double feature, rent The Dam Busters and 633 Squadron to see just why this film falls some way short of being entertaining. 3/10
... View MoreThe always-overrated David McCallum is one of the few good things in this low-budget World War II adventure piece, yet another quickie from Oakmont Films.Sometime prior to D-Day probably early '44 or '43 a Mosquito Squadron is sent to bomb a V-1 rocket installation in France, when Squadron Leader Scott (David Buck) is shot down and presumed dead. His second-in-command, Quint Munroe (who just happens to be like a life-long brother to him) has to return to England and tell his beautiful blonde wife (Suzanne Neve) the sad news. As one would expect, Munroe and Mrs. Scott slowly fall in love. But when Munroe is chosen to lead a mission to bomb a new V-3 development center, things will chance quite a bit because Scott is a prisoner held at the target fortress!From start to finish, "Mosquito Squadron" is a total hack-job literally. The story is filled with enough contrivances and clichés to drive any mildly serious critic mad. Let us take a brief look at a 1964 film entitled "633 Squadron". In said film, a squadron commander has a best friend shot down over Norway, and falls in love with his sister. Later on, he is assigned to bomb the fortress where his friend is being held. Sound familiar? And that's not all our title film steals! Virtually all of the aerial battle footage is directly lifted from "633 Squadron", while the new footage is comprised almost entirely of horrible-looking miniatures hanging from far-too-visible wires.The writers have also directly copied another classic war film, "The Dam Busters". The feasibility of Munroe's mission revolves around a bouncing bomb, which will skip along the ground and roll into an open tunnel leading to the V-3 rockets. (I won't even mention how convenient it was to leave a big open tunnel to drop a bomb into). The real bouncing bomb (made famous in 1954's "The Dam Busters") was designed to skip on water to destroy Nazi dams not the ground as is seen here! The idea of dropping a bouncing bomb on the ground is, simply, ludicrous and impossible. Introduction of this concept kills the storyline immediately.The low budget shows up in every action sequence: the French resistance force is comprised of a half-dozen men in berets carrying Sten guns, and only a handful of German guards enforce security at the "fortress". The forests are obviously cheaply furnished soundstages, and a face-off with an imitation German "tank" is ludicrously shot. We never really see much of the German-held Château, and when we do it never looks as though we're inside some high-tech development center a la "Operation Crossbow". The scenes set in England fare somewhat better, with some excellent scenes set at airfields and a rather rowdy officer's club.David McCallum and the cast of little-known English actors do a fair job, even though the no-frills script doesn't give them much to do. McCallum is a fair actor, nowhere near as great as his fans hail him to be, though. He was better suited for television than cinema, and that comes out in every scene. He often looks uncomfortable and awkward, but delivers his often banal dialog convincingly and with conviction. His scenes with Neve are often touching, even though audiences have seen this dozens of times before. There aren't any other actors worth mention among the ensemble, besides perhaps Charles Gray who would go on to play Blofeld in the James Bond film "Diamonds are Forever" a few years later.Oakmont Productions financed a number of cheap British war films in the late 1960s and early 1970s: "Attack on the Iron Coast", "Hell Boats", "The Last Escape", "The One Thousand Plane Raid" among them. These quickies were best suited for TV viewing instead of theatrical release, but United Artists picked them all up and put them on the big screen. Anyone expecting a classic here or in any of the aforementioned pieces for that matter is in for a big disappointment. Check out "633 Squadron" instead.
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