A sleepy Ealing Studios village gets awakened to wartime reality when they realise the ‘English’ soldiers they’re billeting are Nazi infiltrators.
Made as a propaganda piece to warn against complacency, this has stood the test of time as a genuinely nailgnawing British action-thriller.
Graham Greene’s terse story is masterfully adapted by documentary maker Alberto Cavalcanti, whose unwavering realism makes the ‘what if?’ premise plausible.
And the transformation of Brit-flick stereotypes into gun-toting warriors ensures enduring relevance as class satire.
