Went the Day Well? is a 1942 British World War II propaganda film, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and adapted from a story by Graham Greene, dramatizing a hypothetical German invasion of England. Leslie Banks heads the cast.
On a quiet Whitsun weekend, a group of Nazi soldiers disguised as British engineers take the small village of Bramley End hostage, as the waypoint for a planned invasion. But despite their brutal efforts, the villagers are determined to resist.
This film is regarded by some as a partial inspiration for The Eagle Has Landed.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Ivy and Peggy, Land Army Girls who play a role in the climatic shootout, being among the few locals with any kind of military training in a position to help during the climax. Both are decent shots, move around to counter the German advancement, and keep cool heads.
- Beware the Nice Ones: All of the villagers are friendly, close-knit people who, when it comes down to it, will kill the Germans after being threatened.
- Body-Count Competition: Ivy and Peggy start one in the climax, although more as a way of coping with These Hands Have Killed.
- Do Not Go Gentle: One of the Home Guard members who is shot manages to shoot a German before being finished off.
- Furniture Blockade: Used effectively by the heroes against the German invaders, blocking the doors and making it difficult for the Nazi soldiers to make it in quickly, and to maneuver around afterwards.
- Demoted to Extra: Bill the poacher is the main character of the short story the film is based on but is only in three or four scenes of the movie And suffers from Death by Adaptation as well.
- Foregone Conclusion: Charlie is present in the prologue, which is set years after the main events of the film, guaranteeing that he'll survive.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Several.
- The Vicar is shot when he tries to bring the bell to alert the nearby Home Guard when the Germans show themselves. Only one of them hears it and the others tell him it must have been nothing.
- Bill Purves dies trying to provide diversion for George to flee.
- Mrs. Fraser takes the impact of a grenade thrown near the hostage children.
- Home Guard: Briefly features a British Home Guard unit of villagers who (aside from their absent leader, who's a traitor), get brutally gunned down in an ambush while cycling home.
- Idyllic English Village: The film employs the Rule of Symbolism by framing its village setting as the apotheosis of Englishness that must be protected from Nazi invasion at all costs.
- Left for Dead: Local boy George is shot while trying to Bring Help Back but is only wounded in the leg, and crawls to the nearest village because the Germans don’t check to confirm the kill.
- Men of Sherwood: The escaped villagers who arm themselves and the arriving soldiers from the next town all take out large numbers of Nazi paratroopers without getting into much trouble or taking many casualties.
- More Expendable Than You: The local policeman insists on being the one to risk trying to Bring Help Back because the Germans have threatened to execute the family of anyone who resists and they already killed his teenaged son.
- Never Mess with Granny: Miss Collins the postmistress overpowers her captor, throwing salt in his eyes, then striking him down with an axe and trying to call for help. Unfortunately, the operators on the other end are distracted until a German guard walks in on her.
- The Quisling: Oliver Wilsford, a respected home guard official who's been aiding the Germans for some time and is willing to abide the murders of his neighbours or even commit them.
- Roguish Poacher: Bill Purves the local poacher as a genial old man who gets along well with kids and isn't portrayed negatively during a scene where he's trying to outwit the local policeman. And later is a heroic figure during the conflict.
- Spotting the Thread: Nora, twice. First she notices how some doodling the Germans did has numbers written in a continental European fashion. Then she finds a chocolate bar with German writing on it.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Germans are prepared to execute children as hostages with no qualms.
