The Middle Course (1961) Poster

User Reviews

Review this title
4 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
3/10
Padded
boblipton23 May 2018
You wouldn't think that a 59-minute second feature could be padded, but this one about Vincent Ball, a Canadian flyer whose plane is shot down in Alsace during the Second World War and leads the complacent villagers in fighting the Germans, who have been leaving them alone, is boringly so.

Mostly it's about people telling others things, again and again. "Tell us why we should!" "Listen to me and I'll tell you." "Who are you?" "Tell them who I am." "Go back to the house. I am ordering you to go back to the house, do you understand?" Over and over again, with British actors doing generic French accents. Over and over again, interspersed, occasionally, with shots of men dressed in Wehrmacht uniform tramping across a meadow, presumably headed towards the village to retrieve Mr. Ball
1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
A strange film
malcolmgsw1 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Firstly Vincent Ball was Australian not Canadian.He is more like an agent provocateur than a pilot. He gets a village to fight the Germans despite the fact that they are ill-equipped to fight,then at the end he walks out of the village to letthem suffer the suffer the consequences. This is a typical Danziger production to fill the bottom half of the bill.
0 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Without rights, you have no peace!
mark.waltz14 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
A French town in the middle of the mountains is surrounded by a small troop of Nazis, and the villagers are afraid to stand up to them until a Canadian pilot (Vincent Ball) parachutes into their midst. Energizing the younger villagers and more courageous older men (as well as a few women), he convinces them to stage a rebellion, and finds obstacles in the form of the town elder Cruz motive seems suspicious. Even his younger son wants to stand up to the tyranny surrounding them, and gets a slap in the face for his efforts. Pretty barmaid Lisa Daniely is attracted to Ball even though she's engaged to another man, and this creates human conflict as well as the conflict of war. Ball is the type of hero that Errol Flynn or Leslie Howard would have played in American or British films back during the war. Nothing like

While well-intended and dramatically interesting, this is nothing new, seeming like one of dozens of films that would have come out 15 years before. you really don't see much of the Nazis, just long and loud conversations with the French villagers debating their next move or whether they will fight or submit.. The performances are sincere and in spite of lots of talk, the film does move by at a fast pace. This does not seem much different than hundreds of propaganda films made during the war, and does not attempt to advance the plot to give it a unique perspective.
0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
A pretty good yarn
searchanddestroy-15 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
A very pleasing war movie from UK, written by Brian Clemens - the famous screen writer already guilty of dozens of thrillers and TV shows such as THE AVENGERS - and produced by the Dantzigers Borthers. And there are many films from him I don't know about, as you can guess. This one gives us an interesting point of view, about a British pilot who, during WW2, is parachuted in occupied France and has to get help from the natives, the french resistance. And that's where it becomes interesting. Some of the people accept to help him, and the others refuse. Because they want to remain in peace with the German troops.

Characters are well described, for such a B movie, a very short one, only 57mn. And the ending is somewhere predictable, but not so either. Predictable for someone like me who have seen thousands of films, I mean...

The final shootout may remind us a western, in a small Texas or Arizona town.

A very good picture I highly recommend.

Directed by the very prolific Monty Tully.
5 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed