Battle of the V-1 | |
---|---|
Directed by | Vernon Sewell |
Produced by |
George Maynard John Bash |
Written by | Jack Hanley Eryk Wlodek Bernard Newman |
Starring |
Michael Rennie Patricia Medina |
Music by | Robert Sharples |
Cinematography | Basil Emmott |
Edited by | Lito Carruthers |
Production
company |
Eros Films & John Bash Films Corporation
|
Distributed by | Eros Films |
Release date
|
25 August 1958 (UK) |
Running time
|
104 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Battle of the V-1 (also known as Battle of the V.1, Battle of the V1, Missiles from Hell and Unseen Heroes) is a British war film from 1958, starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Medina, Milly Vitale, David Knight and Christopher Lee. It is based on the novel They Saved London (1955), by Bernard Newman.
The film tells the story of a Polish Resistance group which discovers details of the manufacture of the German V-1 'Flying Bomb' at Peenemünde in 1943. Liaising with service chiefs in London, the group manage to pass on enough information to convince them to launch a bombing raid and, in the climax to the film, are able to steal a V-1 which lands in a field during testing and arrange for its transport back to Great Britain.
Messages are got out from the camp via the dentist (at the loss of one tooth). The Poles are warned that a British bombing raid on Pennemunde is imminent and that they should prepare to escape during the raid.
Following their escape, the second part of the film looks at the attempts to find an entire V-1 to send back to Britain. They are eventually rewarded by an unexploded V-1 landing in a field and managing to quickly conceal it from the German search team. Through convoluted means, they manage to send the dismantled weapon back to Britain just before the critical first use of this terrible weapon.