ROY BOULTING, DAVID MacDONALD
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBB.5.
United Kingdom, 1943. Royal Air Force Film Production Unit, The Army Film & Photographic Unit. Screenplay by J.L. Hodson. Produced by David MacDonald. Music by William Alwyn. Film Editing by Richard Best. Academy Awards 1943.
The Allied effort against Rommel in North Africa is documented in this terrific collection of footage taken during World War II. Most documentaries made in the early forties were in the service of providing information on the war effort to audiences who had not yet reached the era of television, hence why this one feels like a long newsreel and not a film with a narrative shape or structure. Existing prints aren’t great, but the film is interesting as research and makes a good companion to Five Graves To Cairo, which came out the same year.
