Turner Classic movies played this delightful WWII period piece the other day. I hadn't seen it since childhood. The movie was made in England, right after the war. The story is one of those incredible how-did-they-ever-pull-it-off tales. Dams are the hardest of hard targets, being solid piles of concrete, off of which ordinary bombs merely bounce. Brilliant aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis comes up with an absolutely weird plan to crack the dams, with a bomb light enough to be carried by existing aircraft. Somehow Wallis convinces the RAF to take him seriously and devote the considerable resources needed to execute. It was a all British show, no American assistance on this one.
The movie is full of lovely British details. The doors of the Austin staff cars slam with a tinny clang quite unlike the bank vault "kachunk" of Detroit iron. Wallis's cottage has a ledge around the living room to give room for a collection of decorative bottles and vases. My grandmother's house in Montreal had the same ledge and the same bottles. The flying photos are all done with real aircraft (the movie was made early enough that the WWII aircraft were still in service) rather than models or CGI trickery. Shots of four engined bombers skimming across the water at only 60 feet altitude, or taking off in formation, are impressive.
Great flick.
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