I wanted to but couldn't!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely Fantastic

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.

Wonderfully inventive war time drama. It has aged remarkably well and is full of English idiosyncrasies, character and commentary.The saying that they don't make films like this anymore could not be more relevant. The film focuses on a defining time in history and concentrates not on the war itself, but everyday people caught up in the madness. At times it feels stagy and claustrophobic but that does not detract from what is a timeless document.It is rarely shown on TV nowadays, unfortunately. I saw it as a child on some TV matinée program and it has stayed with with me. It really is a testament to a time when British film was flying high. Well worth investigating on DVD.

"Went The Day Well" is a wartime movie that is kind of hard to find on this side of the Atlantic. It took me some searching to find it, but it was worth the effort. Although this movie didn't have the budget of wartime movies coming from Hollywood, it's compensated by some good scripting and direction. Unlike some movies that portrayed the enemy as buffoons, the enemy here is dead serious, killing a number of the villagers in the movie. In fact, even though the movie opens with a prologue that more or less informs the audience that the villagers will prevail at the end, the struggle is so long and hard that even then you'll wonder if the villagers will indeed win the conflict. But the movie isn't COMPLETELY serious - there are occasional touches of humor that prevent the movie from becoming too bleak. A movie well worth your time.

An ahead-of-its-time film if ever there was one, WENT THE DAY WELL? is still a chilling wartime thriller even watched today. It begins deceptively genteel, with Mervyn Johns talking to the camera (a great device) and leading us into a story which times out to be both hard hitting and inspirational.Like the later film, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, this fictional movie poses the 'what if?' question - what if the much-mooted Nazi invasion of England had really taken place? The answer is limited to a single rural village in the English countryside which soon finds itself taken over by ruthless German soldiers.What follows is expertly paced and supremely directed, with the villagers harried, hassled and murdered and eventually fighting back against their oppressors. It's still a violent and grim film, with axe murders, knifings and all manner of shootings put on the screen, although in my mind a scene involving a hand grenade marks the most shocking moment. An excellent cast, topped by THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME's Leslie Banks as a sinister collaborater, help make this a British classic.