The Foreman Went to France was my favorite film screened at Cinevent 2012.This is the story of a British worker who sees that the German army is invading France and that the British machines which make weapons for airplanes are in danger of being taken by the enemy. He takes it upon himself to go to France to take them home, and along the way meets a blonde, two soldiers, and a group of orphans. This movie takes us on a journey as the protagonist experiences the many aspects of war and it is never dull. It was nice to see the British point of view of the war which is much more realistic than the highly optimistic war movies from America.

Exciting adventure, with nice moments of humour and a bit of stiff- upper-lip romance, about the daring exploits of a factory foreman (Clifford Evans) who single handed goes over to France in June 1940 to retrieve some vital machinery before it falls into the hands of the advancing Germans. Vividly shot in black and white, with music by William Walton and script partly by J. B. Priestley, it portrays the tragedy of the French collapse and the terrible toll on civilians. In a commandeered British Army lorry with two Tommies (Gordon Jackson and Tommy Trinder) and a blonde American secretary (Constance Cummings), commandeered as interpreter, he finds the machines and heads for the coast, but then the troubles start. They are strafed by German fighters, attacked by German dive bombers, fight through German infantry and shoot their way out of a German-held château. More sinister in a way are their encounters with fascists, collaborators and fifth-columnists. To viewers at the time, this collection of slime represented not only the shameful Vichy régime over the Channel but also the internal danger Britain could face.Highly recommended, both as a period piece that gives you a window into that dangerous time and as an inspiring quest. Under challenge an ordinary man finds that he has the qualities of a hero, acquires loyal helpers, overcomes his evil adversaries, brings home the treasure and wins the beautiful girl.

It has been a decade or more since I last saw this film. In 1942 it must have been very close to British audience. Nowadays most people still are aware of the evacuation from Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) but the evacuation from Normandy and other points along the coast (Operation Ariel) is far less well known even although nearly as many British troops were brought home by Ariel as by Dynamo. The film did not dwell too much on the grim conditions (the audience wanted a bit of escapism after all) but conveyed the notion that no-one knows when they will be called on to "do their bit" for victory and hopefully rise to the occasion.By the time of the release of the film the Battle of Midway had been won, the Germans had 57 tanks in North Africa and Generals January and February had taken their toll of the Germans in the Eastern Front. Although the Battle of the Atlantic had yet to be won the audience had grounds for optimism. The film had to have been made before it was clear that the tide had turned so it was quite remarkable that it should have hit just the right note.

As usual, totally unlike anything of WWII we see here in America. I watched this film to see Robert Morley, a fave when I was little, only to find he was in a bit, uninteresting role as a French mayor, but the rest of the movie was a wonderful surprise. Based on a true story, Clifford Evans is a factory foreman who journeys to France to retrieve three valuable machines which, if they fell into German hands, would give the Germans an advantage. While he sits in a diner at the train station, the village is evacuated, but he doesn't understand what is happening. He journeys on to the town where the machines are and meets secretary Constance Cummings, an American actress by birth but more popular on British stage, playing a neutral American who is destroying classified documents. She agrees to serve as his translator to get the machines to the coast and she will stop off at her sister's, who also was in France. They enlist the aid of two British soldiers, Tommy Trinder (four stars for him alone as the comedy relief) and Gordon Jackson who have a British army lorry to transport the machines. Our group then further picks up six war orphans, the nun whose care they were in 'is sleeping' after they are attacked by German planes firing upon the fleeing French refugees.This movie never disappointed. It takes place even before Pearl Harbor, so our heroes are totally oblivious to much of the horrors of war to come. Their only purpose is to get the machines back to England however possible. Never beaming with patriotism or heroic virtue, I was halfway through it when I began to think some of our friends may not be alive by the end of the film. The only flaw, . . . the only FLAW, was the foreman's inability to know when to keep his mouth shut! He is shown at the beginning as a fast talker who gets through all the red tape to go to France and get the machines, but he says too much later on, not once but twice, failing to learn from the first time that he gave out too much information. I'm not the most observant person, but when he told the wrong person about the British army lorry, I knew he had said too much again. Still it was a delightful old film with no Hollywood feel or stars and focused on an incident as only persons this close as England could have known about it. At one moment, the foreman Fred Carrick (the real foreman who the movie is based on was named Melbourne Johns), tells a French sea captain "Please thank your people for us. We owe so much to them." The captain responds, "We shall owe everything to your country, monsieur. When France lives again." And this was when the war was still going strong. What a wonderful, powerful entertaining film.