The movie really just wants to entertain people.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Although the film was made at the height of WW2 and clearly aimed at keeping up British morale, it is an immensely impressive film. At its heart, it's the story of very normal people doing extraordinary heroic things. A typical middle-age post-mistress, clubs a German to death with an axe. Middle aged men (who had presumably fought in WW1) face and kill German soldiers. A sailor, on leave to get married, leads the fight against the German infiltration. The 'lady of the manor' throws herself onto a hand grenade to save the children. Although this may sound blood thirsty, it's handled in a typically low- key manner. Whether today's population could do the same is questionable.

This film is certainly well worth the view of seeing.The citizens of a remote British town find themselves visited by an English army there for engineering reasons and through an accident, they discover that they're dealing with Germans disguised as British. When this is discovered, the Germans hold everyone at bay, take hostages and plan to execute young children when they encounter resistance.This excellent film details the brave stalwarts of the town who fought back against the enemy and as a cohesive force, they were able to repel the Nazis. Brutality is the name of the game here, as it is practiced in the usual Nazi way of doing things with occupied people.

I suppose racism becomes excusable particularly when used as propaganda in wartime, all the more so when God is on your side. The only Germans we get to know in "Went the Day Well?", when they have the affront to invade an English village, are all rather horrid. They shoot the poor old vicar dead almost without warning in the church bell tower and then, once their mission is threatened by insurrection, have no compunction about delivering notice of summary execution on five children the following day, just enough time for the villagers to rally together by knocking off the enemy one by one in the best "Boys Own" style before help finally arrives. But not without some pretty nasty happenings on both sides including the bayoneting of the pub landlady after she throws pepper in the eyes of an enemy in order to send him to "kingdom come" with a sharp blow to the head, or the noble action of the lady of the manor whose protection of a group of young evacuees from a hand grenade results in her being blown to pieces. But surely films weren't that violent back in 1942? Some certainly were. It was just that most were in black and white so they didn't need oodles of ketchup. They also had a slick way back then of sparing us the worst by showing us the action then quickly cutting, leaving the effect to the imagination. Or else there was always a prop like a closed door as a suitably sanitised way of suggesting the lady of the manor's demise behind it. Of course we can smile at the quaintness of it all from the vantage point of just over seventy years on; the chapel going couple who object to the German instruction for all the villagers to assemble in the church, a German soldier claiming he comes from Manchester not realising the London isn't the only city to boast of a Piccadilly, or the dotty niece's corny observation that to eat a hyena would be "no laughing matter". But for all that, as sheer entertainment "Went the Day Well?" must almost be a contender for the blank space at the end of Barry Norman's recent lovingly compiled list in the Radio Times of the 49 best British films. Although no match for the finest, it is certainly better than some of the chosen. It has all the ingredients of those matinée thrillers we loved in the 30's and 40's when good and evil were so sharply defined except when the preconception of many of the characters was sometimes excitingly upset by the discovery of the arch villain as the most respected English gentlemen in the community. I don't suppose Godfrey Tearle started it all when he revealed the missing joint of a finger in Hitchcock's "The 39 Steps" but he was certainly Leslie Banks's most distinguished forerunner.

This film is clearly a propaganda movie. It's purpose is quite clear for all in the UK at that time - to trust no-one. It appealed to my own sense of morality, that is a hard edged morality which gets the job done with the best results even if you have to break a few rules of humanity.The story's own moral is that which was plastered around the country over walls every where. "Loose lips sink ships", "Walls have ears!", that kind of thing. It was informing a war torn country that to win this war we not only had to be vigilant constantly, but in the event of us encountering a direct threat to the country's security, we had to give all we had to make sure we didn't lose. An example of this is where one woman is making conversation with a German soldier, keeping him talking whilst she carefully prepares to 'do her bit'. She mentions old propaganda that tells of German soldiers attacking us with babies pierced on their bayonets. The German soldier, though not outraged at this accusation, dismisses it with a comment that may as well have been answered with a shrug. Here the film seems to be saying that even if this is not true, the Germans wouldn't care either way what we thought. The woman throws pepper in the soldiers face then without even a second's thought, attacks him with an axe! Brutal, but brilliant. "People of England", the film says, "whatever you have to do, do it. Just don't let these animals get their hands on our country".The killing of the enemy was portrayed as a noble and just act, as was the resulting injuries and deaths of the villagers when resisting and fighting back. Kill and be killed, defend to the death!The film has a strong message and woe betide if we ignore it. Of course, in today's country, we wouldn't be told to do this. We are too multi cultural, even with those that we fight with abroad at the moment. It is such a shame this sense of duty to one's country is lacking as it certainly would be if it all happened now!