warfilmman
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633 Squadron
633 Squadron - 1963
633 Squadron marks the swansong of the British “Stiff upper lip”, “Boy’s Own” rollicking adventure war film. Within a few years the cynical war is hell films were all that came out of the British studios. Its main reason for being a success today probably lies with the fact that the film features the best colour footage of Mosquitos in action rather than its plot and acting. But in actual fact the film featured a top notch cast at the peak of the success. Cliff Robertson had just played JFK in PT 109, George Chakiris was riding the waves of glory after West Side Story and Angus Lennie had just made The Great Escape. The rest of the cast was made up of familiar faces Harry Andrews, Michael Goodliffe, John Meillon, Donald Houston and Johnny Briggs. Maria Pershey made a few more war films, like The Password is Courage and The Last day of the War before disappearing back into obscurity.
Plot-wise the tough Squadron Leader has to train his men for a vital mission into the fjords of Norway. The model work for its time is fantastic, the uniforms and equipment authenticity is generally good. Like all the best British films, there is a mixture of action and humour, my only big criticism is the uncertainty of the ending – does Cliff Robertson die or not?
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2/12/2005, 3:06 am
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TCUNC76
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Re: 633 Squadron
One of the best things to come out of this film is that it saved several Mosquito's from the smelter. Great flying sequences in this film and shows what a versatile aircraft the Mossie was. Looks like Cliff does die in the film. I had a chance to meet him once when he came to Spartanburg to promote sail plane flying. Great knowledge of aircraft and he did own a Spitfire at one time. He was in so many 1960's WWII films, The Devils Brigade, PT-109, 633 Squadon,Up From The Beach. I am sure there are some more. How about another Mossie based film, Mosquito Squadron with David MaCallum. Good color footage of real Mossie's in flight. The story line is a real bad one.
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2/12/2005, 11:22 am
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