Ill Met by Moonlight (1957) on Netflix
NR19571h 44mActionAdventureDramaHistoryWar
On Crete in 1944, Major Patrick Leigh Fermor and Captain W. Stanley Moss plan to abduct the island's German commander, Major General Kreipe. Cretan partisans help them in the mountains.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.5/102,242 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1944, Crete is under German occupation. Major Patrick Leigh Fermor and Captain W. Stanley Moss, British officers of the Special Operations Executive, land on the island and join the agents and Cretan partisans already working there. Their mission is to seize Major General Kreipe, the German commander of the occupying forces, and carry him alive to Cairo, a blow meant to embarrass and demoralize the Germans. Taking Kreipe is one task; getting him off the island is another, for search parties will be looking for him and the route runs by night across the mountains, where the group depends on the help of townspeople and resistance fighters. Sandy, their radio contact, is holed up in a cave and reachable only now and then.
Cast
- Wolfe Morrisas George
- George Eugeniouas Charis Zographakis
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After the success of The Battle of the River Plate, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's company The Archers signed a one-film deal with the Rank Organisation; disagreements between the two men over that contract and over aspects of the production contributed to The Archers breaking up.
- Marius Goring, who played General Heinrich Kreipe, had already appeared in three other Powell and Pressburger films; he replaced Curt Jürgens, the original choice for the part of the German general.
- Armed insurgency in Cyprus meant the film was made at Pinewood Studios in England, with location shooting in the Alpes-Maritimes and on the Côte d'Azur; the real SOE agents Patrick Leigh Fermor and Xan Fielding were present on the location shots as advisors.
- Christopher Lee played a German officer in the dentist scene and David McCallum made his film debut as a sailor, but Lee's part was edited out of the 1959 American re-release of the film.
- The score was by the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who had been raised on the island of Crete, and it was his first for motion pictures.
