| Landfall | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Directed by | Ken Annakin |
| Screenplay by | Talbot Jennings |
| Story by | Gilbert Gunn Anne Burnaby |
| Based on | Landfall: A Channel Story byNevil Shute |
| Produced by | Victor Skutezky |
| Starring | Michael Denison Patricia Plunkett Kathleen Harrison David Tomlinson Joan Dowling |
| Cinematography | Wilkie Cooper |
| Edited by | Peter Graham Scott |
| Music by | Philip Green |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Associated British-Pathé |
Release date |
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Running time | 86 minutes[1] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Box office | £141,127 (UK)[2] |
Landfall is a 1949 Britishwar film directed byKen Annakin and starringMichael Denison,Patricia Plunkett andKathleen Harrison.[3] The screenplay was byTalbot Jennings from an adaptation byGilbert Gunn andAnne Burnaby of the 1940 novelLandfall: A Channel Story byNevil Shute.[4]
Rick Chambers, a BritishCoastal Command pilot in World War II based nearPortsmouth, sinks what he believes to be a German submarine, unaware that a British submarine is also in that part ofthe Channel. When it emerges that the British submarine has been lost with all hands, aNavy enquiry is held and the senior naval officer concludes that Rick mistakenly attacked a British submarine in afriendly-fire incident. While the enquiry finds that the captain of the submarine was principally at fault for poor navigation, Rick is officially criticised for having failed to properly visually identify his target. Although his commanding officer disagrees with the court's finding and encourages Rick to stay with the squadron, Rick requests another posting.
Rick's fiancée Mona Stevens, a barmaid, overhears information that might help uncover what really happened to the British submarine. She reports this information to the Navy, who re-open the investigation and find that a German submarine was also in the area and torpedoed the British submarine, taking up its location and running on the surface, until it was spotted and sunk by Rick.
In the interim, Rick's new posting is a dangerous flying duty, testing a new type of guided bomb. After his aircraft crashes and he is critically injured, he is met at the hospital by the naval captain who originally ruled against him, and he tells Rick that he has been exonerated in the re-opened enquiry.
Landfall was one of two filmsKen Annakin made on loan out fromGainsborough Pictures toAssociated British, the other beingDouble Confession (1950). Annakin wrote "Neither had very good scripts, nor exciting casting... except forPeter Lorre" who was inDouble Confession.[5]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Competent but unexciting story of some 1940 adventures inCoastal Command: Air Force (synthetic jollity) andNaval (strong, silent service) backgrounds interspersed with heavily humorous excerpts from the familiar home life ofKathleen Harrison."[6]
Variety wrote: "It is nothing more than asoap opera replete with cliché and contrived incidents. It unsuccessfully mixes war heroics and romance, with a slight comment on the breakdown of England's social caste system."[7]
TheRadio Times gave the film two out of five stars, calling it a "dainty item from a vanished era of British war movies."[8]
TV Guide rated the film similarly, concluding that "[a]dequate performances are marred by a script burdened with some soap opera dramatics."[9]