One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Our DVD Price: £8.99 RRP: £9.99 Save £1.00 (10%)   Availability In Stock - should be despatched within 24 hours.  This product will be dispatched from Guernsey. Delivery times   Earn 40 Bonus Points when you buy this product. More info

Film Description

Forced to bail out over the Low Countries, an RAF bomber crew fall prey to suspicion and paranoia as they try to make their way back to England. The recreation of the aviation operation during the first half hour still looks remarkably authentic.

Film Information

Technical Details

Reviews & Articles

Share your thoughts and opinions - write a review

Review by Julian Upton on 27th March 2006

Directors Powell and Pressburger steer clear of their penchant for the baroque in this World War II drama about a British bomber crew crash-landing in German-occupied Holland. Although the documentary-style realism that was de rigeur for propaganda films during the war can now seem rather quaint, Aircraft’s recreation of the aviation operation during the first half hour still looks remarkably authentic. The atmosphere of an airborne assault is strikingly well evoked, with nicely-judged model work and convincing special effects balancing the casual interplay of the crew members’ dialogue to achieve a high degree of verisimilitude.
Stylistic devices such as the absence of incidental music add further power to these scenes, and David Lean’s sublime editing pre-empts the action spectacle of his later directorial effort, the lavish Bridge on the River Kwai. The film slows a little – and loses its authenticity — when the crew are taken in by a community of picture postcard Dutch villagers and begin to plot their way back to Blighty, but Powell and Pressburger use this Boy’s Own material to further develop the characters and add some light relief into the mix. Before long, the excitement factor is cranked up again, as the crew’s escape from The Netherlands reaches its tense climax.

View more reviews by Julian Upton

Browse all Film Reviews

Article - "The Life and Spirit of Michael Powell" by Ray Durgnat
Thursday 7th March 2002

Powell's bestknown films are spectacular, sensual, fanciful. The others are quiet, retiring, almost secretive. Even, disappointing; until odd details tease your mind, and gradually the simplicity reveals its depths.


Born 1905, Powell was a country boy ...  View article in full

Article - "British Second World War Films" by Jonathon Hamer
Sunday 1st July 2001

Much has been written about the golden era of British films. In the book The Finest Years: British Cinema of the 1940’s, Charles Drazin underlines the importance of the Second World War as an inspiration to filmmakers. The nation suddenly found itself galvaniz...  View article in full

Customers who bought this also bought...

Recommendations from fellow customers

The Edge Of The World

by Michael Powell

A Canterbury Tale

by Emeric Pressburger / Michael Powell

Seven Samurai

by Akira Kurosawa

Breathless (Godard, 1959)

by Jean-Luc Godard

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

by Emeric Pressburger / Michael Powell

Other films by...

More films directed by Emeric Pressburger / Michael Powell

Fleet Air Arm At War And Peace 1943 - 1959

49th Parallel

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp / A Matter of Life and Death (DVD)

The Powell and Pressburger Collection

View more >

More films starring Googie Withers

Night And The City

by Jules Dassin

Hotel du Lac

by Giles Foster

Northanger Abbey

by Giles Foster

It Always Rains On Sunday

by Robert Hamer

Back Room Boy

by Herbert Mason

View more >

More films starring Godfrey Tearle

Tomorrow We Live

by George King

View more >

For questions or assistance, call us on (+44) 0844 776 0900 or email on enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

© 2004-2007 MovieMail, Ltd., All Rights Reserved. Find out more about MovieMail