The plight of Malta, just 58 miles from the Italians... with German air superiority and the Luftwaffe making 3000 attacks on the island... is shown well here in this 1953 movie. The filmmakers got access to real spitfires for the movie, and it was shot in Malta on location, 8 years after the war so there is still plenty of bombed out landscapes for some realistic visuals. While many movies use footage from the war, and splice it into the movie shot footage, it often doesn't match. Malta Story does a really good job of it matching. There are model shots of course, but they are pretty good for the time. And there are plenty of real shots of the spitfires, and plane wrecks. Overall, the gloom of a city under sieges, and the Brits realising they are in trouble, comes across quite well. On the down side, the sub plot of the maltese spy is a bit underexplored, and Sir Alec Guiness (who is a great actor) seems out of place and a bit distant. The rest of the cast, including Jack Hawkins, are great. Definitely worth a look for war film buffs.
Review of Malta Story
