During WWII, Hollywood made hundreds of films aimed at solidifying the public's support for the war. Some of these were extremely well made while others often made the Japanese or Germans seem semi-human and rather stupid. These less well made and less realistic films often were, in spire of themselves, quite entertaining...but also very obvious in their aims. When I saw "Secret Mission" I realized that the British, too, could make ridiculously unrealistic propaganda films....and while the Nazis aren't quite as cartoonish as some of Hollywood's Nazis, they were incredibly stupid...so stupid you wonder how they ever took over most of Europe!!The story involves some British spies as well as one French one (James Mason of all people) who sneak into France in order to survey the area before an upcoming invasion. The Nazis are uniformly dim...having very lax security and falling for pretty much every lame attempt at subterfuge! The Germans are SO dumb that it really takes away from the movie...and doesn't show how efficiently evil they really were!So is it any good? Well, it's not terrible...not that this is a glowing endorsement! Overall, despite some very fine actors (such as MIchael Redgrave, Herbert Lom and Roland Carver), a relatively dull offering...one that is watchable but not much more.

SECRET MISSION is a routinely-plotted WW2 propaganda movie, made in Britain and set in occupied France. The plot is about a hodge podge of British spies and French resistance members who enter France in order to find out information about the enemy's local resources so that a secret invasion might take place.This is one of those films which offers up a little bit of everything. There's romance here, some humour, suspense, and action too for the gung-ho crowd. What I liked most about it was the fact that the heroic characters have greater depth than normal by genre standards, so you end up caring about their plight. James Mason in particular stands out as a sympathetic fellow. The film starts off a bit slow but gets better and better as it goes on, building to a truly satisfying climax.

As if the writers took a "paint by number" book to create the screenplay, all the clichés of World War II "why we fight" stories are present in this tale of the French resistance. What makes it a bit more interesting is the presence of James Mason and Michael Wilding before them became Hollywood film stars. Mason gets a French accent (which sometimes sounds German) but Wilding gets to be totally British. Most of the French characters speak with a British dialect which makes Mason's accent more obvious. The only real interesting plot development concerns secret resistance members who obviously had slowly won the confidence of the Germans but were secretly working against them, making them enemies of their own people until that is exposed. Of course, you can't help but root for the resistance and cheer every time the Nazis are foiled and land back on their axis. It is obvious that this type of film cheered up the Allies enormously during the war and left them satisfied and motivated when they left the theater.

James Mason delivers perhaps the worst performance of his career in this incredibly mediocre intriguer directed by Harold French. Mason plays Raoul de Carnot, a Free French soldier who returns to his native land to plot against the Nazi occupiers with the help of his family and three British agents. Mason, who herein resembles a rictus grinning caricature of Frank Sinatra, emotes with one of the worst French accents ever captured on celluloid. Don't get me wrong: this is not a broad, Inspector Clouseau-ish accent, it's just a dreadful, unconvincing stab at Franglais. Mason seems to know it, to: he barely acts in the film and sheepishly mumbles his way from scene to scene. Secret Mission is also cheaply made (watch for the model boat chugging across a miniature set in an early scene) and badly written by future Bond-helmer Terence Young, but it's Mason who is the cerise sur le gateau. The whole thing would be a lot more fun if he'd been costumed in a stripy shirt and told to periodically nibble on a baguette.