I hadn’t read your last post (#9) before I posted my reply James. Thanks for that extra info, it is really quite interesting. I have seen other wartime films from the Crown Film Unit that are much the same, stilted acting but by amazing real people and they’re great pieces of history.
Just as an aside – I also have a copy of a fantastic film made by the British Army Kinematography Branch, called ‘The New Lot’. It took a different approach. Though writeen and made by real soldiers they employed actors for the main roles. The result in this case is actually quite stunning. This was a film made only to show to army units, not the public, but the acting is a ton better than most of the stuff Pinewood and Denham, etc were putting out then and for twenty years after the war. It stars a great cast, including Peter Ustinov (who wrote it and was then also a soldier), and great actors like John Laurie, Bernard Lee, Raymond Huntley and Robert Donat! Others in the cast were regular soldiers too.
It was made in 1943, and a certain army officer who saw it, one David Niven, liked it so much he took the script and most of the cast, and developed it further into the classic film “The Way Ahead” for public consumption.
So, yes I see the great merit in old training and information films like Target For Tonight, but those done with actors also worked well when done right. Most of the actors were either serving or ex-servicemen anyway. John Laurie fought and nearly died in the trenches in WWI for one.
Eddie, I have seen clips from Night Bombers in various docos, but never the full film. I must track down a copy someday.
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