Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Good concept, poorly executed.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Hugh Williams (Peter Garnett), Carla Lehmann (Michele de Carnot), James Mason (Roul de Carnot), Roland Culver (Red Gowan), Michael Wilding (Nobby Clark), Nancy Price (Violette), Percy Walsh (Fayolle), Anita Gombault (Estelle), David Page (René), Betty Warren (Mrs Nobby Clark), Nicholas Stuart (Captain Mackenzie), Brefni O'Rorke (Father Jouvet), Karel Stepanek (Major Lang), F.R. Wendhausen (General von Reichmann), John Salew (Captain Grune), Herbert Lom (medical officer), Beatrice Varley (Mrs Donkin), Yvonne Andre (Martine), Stewart Granger (Sub-Lieutenant Jackson).Director: HAROLD FRENCH. Screenplay: Anatole de Grunwald and Basil Bartlett — from an original story by Shaun Terence Young. Director of photography: Bernard Knowles. Special effects: Percy Day, Desmond Dickinson and John Mills. Music: Mischa Spoliansky. Art director: Carmen Dillon. Editor: E. B. Jarvis. Supervising art director: Paul Sheriff. Camera operator: Cyril Knowles. Still photographs: Jack Dooley. Production manager: Tom White. Assistant director: W.N. Boyle. Sound supervisor: A.W. Watkins. Sound recording: John Dennis. Western Electric Sound System. Made with the co-operation of the Ministry of Information, the War Office, and the Air Ministry. Producer: Marcel Hellman. A Marcel Hellman Production. An Excelsior Film.Copyright 4 January 1945 by English Films, Inc. U.S. release through English Films: 26 September 1944. No recorded New York opening. U.K. release through General Film Distributors: 5 October 1942 (sic). Australian release through G-B-D/20th Century-Fox: 3 June 1943. 8,542 feet. 95 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Three officers and a private from British Intelligence are landed in Occupied France.COMMENT: A bizarre mixture of straight spy suspense and lowbrow comedy. Fortunately as the plot progresses, Michael Wilding's comic Cockney disappears for long stretches, allowing the more suspenseful elements to take hold in between the usual unlikely bouts of romance. On the whole, thrills win out. Good production values help. The photography is especially attractive. On the debit side, Mason's fans are not going to be happy either with their hero's tiny part or his ridiculous French accent. It's the far less personable Hugh Williams who steals most of the footage.

They are all in it, James Mason, Michael Wilding, Hugh Williams, Stewart Granger and even Herbert Lom as the one German officer who is not a complete caricature, and the glorious ingenious music adds to the general flavour of good humour and fresh spirits, which was needed in the darkest year of the war, 1942. It's war propaganda, of course, but not as daft as it looks from the start. There are some excellent scenes, and you don't always hear James Mason with a French accent complaining about English food in preference of the French kitchen. There are a number of bottles in the film, and some are even opened, but the only wines served is the champagne for the Germans. James Mason is about to relish a well preserved bottle of Calvados hidden from the Germans when the party is interrupted by an unnecessary argument. It all ends up with some real banging and bombing in the end, when the Germans really are blowing it, providing a grand finale, raising the film from a trifle to some interesting entertainment. The best scene is the exciting moment when Michelle is listening to the British broadcast and the Germans barge in just in the right moment when Hitler is speaking - but only as an example of German propaganda shown by BBC, but the Germans leave Mademoiselle with respect and full of admiration for her German loyalty.As an entertainment it's well worth seeing, and James Mason never fails to make any film he is in interesting enough to keep you awake all the way.

For once I am in agreement with virtually everyone who has posted a comment here. It is, of course, impossible to view this film with the eyes and sensibilities of 1942, but against that we have all seen films made in and/or around this time which are NOT risible, In Which We Serve, The Way Ahead, spring to mind, so now we have to ask if the audiences who watched the two films cited also were able to watch Secret Mission with a straight face. In its favour it boasts a strong cast in the shape of James Mason, Hugh Williams, Michael Wilding, but then it negates that by making Mason and Wilding at least look totally inept and I can only suppose they were bound contractually to appear in it. It isn't even good social history as clearly no one behaved like this at any time or anywhere in history.

Apparently, as the film "Zero Hour" inspired "Airplane!", this routine propaganda film, "Secret Mission" from 1942 was the inspiration for a British comedy, "allo, allo." The film stars James Mason, Roland Culver, Michael Wilding, and Karel Stepanek.Mason plays Raoul, a member of the Free French Army (and his accent is appalling) who returns to France to get German intelligence. He brings with him Captain Red Gowan and Major Peter Garrett (Roland Culver and Hugh Williams). Raoul brings him to his family's home, which his sister Michele (Carla Lehmann) is not happy about. The three also enlist the aid of a Cockney (Wilding) who is married to the owner of a café.The story is pretty absurd, though done with a straight face. First of all, Red and Peter walk around this French village in trench coats like no one is after them, and they stick out like sore thumbs. They bluff their way into German headquarters as champagne salesmen and these dumb Germans give them a lot of info about troops, and leave them alone in the commandant's office so they can take a look at the map and write down targets.The saving grace of the film is that it focuses on a family and the effect of war, and there, it does a decent job. These films were meant to keep people going during the war. I'm sure at the time no one noticed the more amusing parts. Evidently someone did later on, though.I'd call this mildly entertaining, and if you know the show on which it's based, you'll love it. Kind of like seeing Zero Hour after you've seen Airplane!