Ill Met by Moonlight (Night Ambush) |
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theatrical poster |
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Directed by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Produced by | Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Written by | W. Stanley Moss (book) Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger |
Starring | Dirk Bogarde Marius Goring David Oxley Cyril Cusack |
Music by | Mikis Theodorakis |
Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
Editing by | Arthur Stevens |
Studio | Pinewood Studios |
Distributed by | Rank Film Distributors Ltd. |
Release date(s) | 4 March 1957 (UK) 24 April 1958 (NYC) July 1958 (US) |
Running time | 104 minutes 93 minutes (US) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Ill Met by Moonlight (1957), also known as Night Ambush, is a film by the British writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the last film they made together through their Archers production company. The film, which stars Dirk Bogarde and features Marius Goring, David Oxley, and Cyril Cusack, is based on the 1950 book Ill Met by Moonlight: The Abduction of General Kreipe by W. Stanley Moss. It was an account of events during the author's service on Crete as an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II. It features the young agents' capture and evacuation of the German commander, General Heinrich Kreipe. The title is a quotation from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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During World War II, the Greek Mediterranean island of Crete was occupied by the Nazis. British officers Major Patrick Leigh Fermor DSO (Dirk Bogarde) and Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC (David Oxley) of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) land on the island. With the help of the local Cretan resistance in April 1944, they kidnap German General Heinrich Kreipe (Marius Goring), the commander of the island. They take Kreipe across rough country to a secluded cove on the far side of the island, where they are picked up and taken to Cairo, where British forces are stationed.[1]
Cast notes:
Ill Met By Moonlight was filmed at Pinewood Studios in England, with location shooting in the Alpes-Maritimes in France and Italy, and on the Côte d'Azur in France.[5][6]
The story was affectionately parodied by Spike Milligan in the 1957 Goon Show episode, "Ill Met by Goonlight".
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