The Big Blockade (1940)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Charles Frend

Writers:

Charles Frend (writer)
Angus MacPhail (writer)

Release Date:

23 March 1940 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Wartime propaganda piece reporting on the success of the economic blockade of Germany in the early years of the war. |

Plot Keywords:

Propaganda | Ealing | WWII

Cast

Leslie Banks	...	Taylor
Michael Redgrave	...	Russian
Will Hay	...	Skipper
John Mills	...	Tom
Frank Cellier	...	Schneider
Robert Morley	...	Von Geiselbrecht
Alfred Drayton	...	Direktor
Bernard Miles	...	Mate
Marius Goring	...	Propaganda Officer
Austin Trevor	...	U-boat Captain
Michael Rennie	...	George
Morland Graham	...	Civil Service
Albert Lieven	...	Gunter
John Stuart	...	Naval officer
Joss Ambler	...	Stoltenhoff

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Ealing Studios, Ealing, London, England, UK

Company:

Ealing Studios

Trivia:

Initially intended as a MOI (wartime Ministry of Information) two-reeler about economic warfare.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Forever Ealing (2002) (TV)

Wizard Prang

All media propaganda appears shallow in hindsight, and more especially to todays enlightened cynical generations. Todays propaganda usually has to be far more subtle and careful than that of WW2 to get the government line out, but ultimately it's the same: America good, China bad etc. My line is: every country good, every country bad.

This episodic film starts with T for Tommy (keen as mustard Michael Rennie and nonchalant John Mills) flying out to night bomb Hanover, later doing it and returning. In between there's lots of various naval action and detailed earnest explanation of the how and why of the British economic blockade of Nazi Germany. We're repeatedly shown how useless and demoralised the Germans were getting under War conditions, when the Blockade was taking effect and even their ersatz products were failing them. Sadly though Hitler hung on for another savage 5 years. Lots of big and little British stars have bit parts here: Leslie Banks as a super organiser at the Minstry of Economic Warfare, Michael Redgrave as a humorous Russian in Germany, Will Hay and Bernard Miles have an intense 3 minutes fighting off the Luftwaffe from on board ship, Robert Morley as a frothing Nazi officer, Ronald Shiner has 2 seconds as a shipping clerk in a phone box, George Woodbridge as half the man he later became. And many others. Was that a woman's voice dubbed onto the man at the Bunawerke production meeting, and if so why?!

The "vicious intrigues of the Capitalist-British-Jewish Empire" are still a major concern to a lot of people today – mainly British passport holders though! This was a film made solely for 1940, and is a great window on the thought-processes of the time, if not the truth. Also it's useful to bear in mind that if the War they were all supporting in here had been lost I wouldn't be here writing this nor you reading it.