The first time I saw this and after watching the first 15 minutes, I thought this was going to be one of those 3rd rate 1950's war films..... so I kept the film running but ended up being easily distracted because I had already decided.
So I saw it on TP recently for a second time and this time I promised to give the film my attention.... and I am glad I did..... this film for me was not Low Budget .... but rather a small Hollywood budget..... and compared to many British A films I am sure the budget here was significantly more....!
It surprised me to see how the women were portrayed in this film.... especially the women captured and their torture plus the way these Polish women were the biggest factor in helping the British to identify Assess and ultimately steal a V1 ...... we saw the German women enjoying their brutality and cruelty as much as their male counterparts in the SS and camp guards.... I even got the sense that there was some very heavy hinting at the sexual lust & gratification that some of these Nazis had in their treatment of forced labour and the occupied populations.
Even Esmond Knight... popped in to reprise a similar role he had in The Silver Fleet..... and he led the torture of one of our heroines....
The accuracy is also very good for this film, I cannot recall another similar film of the 50's that was focused on the Nazis Top Secret operations and portrayed just how It was the Poles that gave and sacrificed everything for the people of Britain and in particular London...... indeed without the Poles sacrifice the Nazis would have had the V1 ready and targeting Britain prior to the D Day landings .....!
I never understood why there were not more films portraying the efforts and sacrifices of the Polish people and for that matter other Eastern Europe countries in general, I guess it's because of the way We, the allies and in particular the British and Americans who allowed these countries especially Poland to be assimilated by the Russians and forced into communism.... I was taught, that the Poles were the only nation not to surrender to Nazi Germany and it was their pilots that helped us to win the Battle of Britain and indeed it was the Poles that broke the German codes using the enigma machine and shared all this with Britain prior to September 1939.....
At the time I could never understand why if Britain was prepared to declare war on Germany after they and Russia invaded Poland in 1939 (because of a treaty we had signed with Poland prior) why after the war against Nazi Germany we didn't make the same demands to Stalin and his communist stooges who were occupying Poland as the Germans surrendered and these same Russians were the ones who invaded Poland with Nazi Germany in 1939, the British turned its back on Poland and it's people after the war, these great brave Polish people deserved so much more ....!
Well worth watching for that reason alone imho....
