You won't be disappointed!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

While I could see a few plot problems here and there, this British propaganda film did a good job of rallying the folks at home for the war effort. It begins in France just after the fall of the country (summer 1942). While you rarely hear about them, naturally some British citizens got stranded in the country and could not make it back to the UK. This film concerns British women who were interred by the Germans in a rather nice and luxurious hotel. While I have no idea how the Germans actually treated such women, I doubt if they were as nice and lax as they were in the film. This is a rare case where the Nazis portrayed in the propaganda film seemed nicer than the real thing--usually it's the other way around! The film initially is about these women adjusting to their new home and it took a strange turn when three British airmen were shot down and actually sought refuge with the women! The idea of them being able to just sneak in to this guarded facility seemed hard to believe. However, because the acting was very good as well as the direction and script, it seemed to work well. Despite a good job, there were a few sour notes. One was that when the prisoners or escaped fliers fought with Nazis, the bad guys had a very convenient habit of NOT crying out for help when they were attacked!! The other was late in the film when one woman went from loving one of the fliers to turning him in to the Nazis with incredible speed--it made no sense and seemed quite contrived. Still, the film generally underplayed the drama and was otherwise pretty convincing.For a somewhat similar plot but better handled is Claudette Colbert's "Three Came Home"--which is based on a real American woman's experience in a Japanese internment camp.

Anyone waiting in vain for a number 63 bus in November, 1944, who happened to see this film soon afterwards would have realised that the missing omnibus was being driven through this plot that makes gossamer look like industrial strength tungsten. It's almost impossible to imagine that anyone who saw it in late 1944 or early 1945 and had endured five years of austerity would not have been insulted by this portrait of women actually living in interement but enjoying better lifestyles than those enjoying freedom at home. There's a token scene at the beginning where established internees haul buckets of water upstairs to fill a bath for a batch of newcomers but otherwise the women are expertly dressed and coiffed and as icing on the cake Phyliss Calvert turns up to a concert - within the château and one that has not been rehearsed and/or even mentioned until it is in full swing - in an evening dress magicked from God knows where. On the credit side it is a chance to see a turnout of half the distaff side of the British film industry at the time via the likes of Flora Robson, Thora Hird (even carrying her own daughter, Janette Scott, then a babe in arms) Ann Crawford, Jean Kent, Renee Asherson and an uncredited Dulcie Gray. Nice cast, shame about the joke of a plot.

All those women are confined in a remarkably luxurious German internment camp without male company. What a waste, as so many of them seem to have film star looks and wardrobes to match. So what better spot for some British airforce chaps to seek refuge? Seriously now folks, those British boys must be helped to escape at once. But it's awfully hot in here don't you think, perhaps I'll just take a bath...After a slow and rather class-conscious opening, the story develops into a stylish, sometimes funny and often sexy battle of wits against the usual hapless German guards and the occasional informer. Along the way, the camera lingers wistfully on every stockinged thigh and lacy bosom, but somehow everyone manages to keep thinking of England – at least some of the time.A top cast of female leads.

The critics were a bit sniffy at the time of its release, but this is one of the jolliest films made during the war. It concerns a group of English women caught in France during World War II and interned in a posh hotel. It's full of the sort of "There'll always be an England" stiff upper lip stuff that looks so kitch these days, and yet there's also a feeling of release for these women since there are no men around.Sadly, some RAF men accidentally parachute into the camp and the women have to hide them from the Germans. The men are undercast and a bit dreary, but they wouldn't stand a chance against the cream of British character actresses anyway.The rest of the film concerns the women's attempts to smuggle the men out of the camp. The plot however is irrelevent. What matters is the way these actresses work without having to compete for billing with any male star. The film is fun, risque and the best British romp before Tom Jones.