Against the Wind (film)

Against the Wind is a blackandwhite British film directed by Charles Crichton and produced by Michael Balcon, released through Ealing Studios in 1948. Against the Wind is a World War II sabotageresistance drama set in occupied Belgium, starring Robert Beatty, Jack Warner and Simone Signoret in her first Englishlanguage film role.

With the first part of their mission completed to plan, the operatives are hiding out with the Belgian resistance when the S.O.E. succeed in getting a message through, alerting one of them to the presence of a traitor among their ranks. The individual is executed following the discovery of unambiguous evidence of duplicity. The second part of the mission then goes ahead, with the captured S.O.E. operative being successfully released after a road and railway chase sequence.Against the Wind performed only modestly at the boxoffice and received a mixed critical reception, with reviews ranging from the favourable This little film about a batch of saboteurs in wartime Belgium is...tense and artistic. It is a pleasing and worthwhile film to the unimpressed Against the Wind...has the aspect of contrived melodrama and a minimum of the truth behind the sabotage of World War II. Despite an experienced cast, Against the Wind is unconvincing fare. A frequent criticism levelled at the film was that the early scenesetting section was somewhat jerky in style, with sketchy attempts to provide backstories for the main protagonists leaving many viewers rather confused as to what exactly was going on. The performances of the lead actors tended to be commented on in vague faintpraise terms such as competent and proficient. ........

Source: Wikipedia