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One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (stylised on screen as ......one of our aircraft is missing) is a 1942 British black-and-white war film, mainly set in the German-occupied Netherlands.[2] It was the fourth collaboration between the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and the first film they made under the banner of The Archers.

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger

Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
Stanley Haynes

  • 27 June 1942 (1942-06-27)

UK: 102 minutes
US: 82 minutes

United Kingdom

English

£70,000 (est.)

$478,939 (US rentals)[1]

Although considered a propaganda film and made under the authority of the Ministry of Information as part of a series of film productions aimed at morale in the United Kingdom, it is elevated by the story and production values above the usual jingoistic fare.[3] Today, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is considered one of the "best of British films of the era".[4]


A reversal of the plot of Powell and Pressburger's previous film, 49th Parallel (1941), One of Our Aircraft Is Missing has the British trying to escape with the help of various locals. In the 49th Parallel, the Germans stranded in Canada argued and fought amongst themselves, while the British fliers in this film work well together as a team.

Plot[edit]

The crew of an Royal Air Force (RAF) Wellington bomber are forced to bail out over the Netherlands near the Zuider Zee after one of their engines is damaged during a night raid on Stuttgart. Five of the six airmen find each other; the sixth goes missing. The first Dutch citizens they encounter, led by English-speaking school teacher Else Meertens, are suspicious at first as no aircraft is reported to have crashed in the Netherlands (the abandoned bomber actually reaches England before crashing). After much debate and some questioning, the Dutch agree to help, despite their fear of German reprisals.


Accompanied by many of the Dutch, the disguised airmen, led by the pilots, bicycle through the countryside to a football match where they are passed along to the local burgomaster. To their astonishment, they discover their missing crewman playing for one of the teams. Reunited, they hide in a truck carrying supplies to Jo de Vries.


De Vries pretends to be pro-German, blaming the British for killing her husband in a bombing raid (whereas he is actually in England working as a radio announcer). She hides them in her mansion, despite the Germans being garrisoned there. Under cover of an air raid, she leads them to a rowing boat. The men row undetected to the sea, but a bridge sentry finally spots them and a shot seriously wounds the oldest man, Sir George Corbett but they reach the North Sea.


They take shelter in a German rescue buoy, where they take two shot-down enemy aviators prisoner but not before one sends a radio message. By chance, two British boats arrive first. Because Corbett cannot be moved, they simply tow the buoy back to England. Three months later, he is fully recovered and the crew board their new four-engine heavy bomber, a Short Stirling.

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

According to Kinematograph Weekly the film was one of the most popular at the British box office in 1942, after Mrs Miniver, First of the Few, How Green was My Valley, Reap the Wild Wind, Holiday Inn, Captains of the Clouds, and Sergeant York and before Hatter's Castle and Young Mr Pitt.[12]

Awards[edit]

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay, and Ronald Neame (photography) and C. C. Stevens (sound) for Best Effects, Special Effects.[13] Powell's nomination was his only Academy Award nomination – Pressburger won an Academy Award for 49th Parallel and was nominated for The Red Shoes as well.[11]


One of Our Aircraft Is Missing joins other British war films as one of the most "well-remembered, accomplished, and enjoyed" realist films of the period.[14]


In 2014, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing was included in a set of war films packaged together and sold to raise funds for The Royal British Legion veterans organisation.[15]

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Paul Charles

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is mentioned in the Dad's Army episode "The Lion Has Phones". When Lance-Corporal Jones tries to ring up GHQ, he mistakenly gets the cinema, whose operator tells him the film is on. There is a mention of Eric Portman and Googie Withers. A poster for the film is on display at the cinema.[16] Correspondingly, in the episode of Dad's Army, "Time on My Hands", Pike knows how to open a parachute because, he says, he's seen it done in One of Our Aircraft Is Missing.[17] The episode "Sons of the Sea" also contains numerous elements from this film.[18]


In the James Bond film From Russia With Love, after dispatching an attack helicopter sent by SPECTRE, 007 observes, "I'd say one of their aircraft is missing."


The title is parodied by many other works:[19]

at the TCM Movie Database

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

at IMDb

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

at AllMovie

One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

at the Powell & Pressburger Pages

Reviews and articles

at the BFI's Screenonline. Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries).

One of Our Aircraft is Missing

Review at cinepassion.org