Now It Can Be Told (1944) watch online HD

It's a kind of walk-through describing the training and operations of resistance fighters in England who are parachuted into France and cause the occupying German forces all sorts of trouble in 1943.

It's not badly done, considering that the acting is practically non-existent. We follow a man and woman (the only two professional actors in the film) as they learn techniques of disguise, communication, and sabotage in Britain before being turned loose in Normandy. The resistance, or the maquis as they were called, should know about sabotage. The word may have come from the wooden shoes -- sabots -- thrown by dissatisfied French workers into the cogs of machines.

In some areas of France, there wasn't much in the way of resistance. Often, the German soldiers were under strict orders to behave themselves. (In Paris they were forbidden to smoke in the street.) Accommodations were reached. But, paradoxically, the mutual tolerance made the resistance that much more effective because if the mass of the French population were indifferent and minded their own business, it was that more difficult to root out the activists who swam so innocently among them. No mention of internal rivalries within the resistance -- the nationalists, the communists, the quiet espionage agents and the destructive saboteurs.

The characters we meet, whether French or English, are efficient but extraordinarily dull. When they are shown their L (for "lethal") pills, the guy says cheerfully something like, "Oh, so that's what they look like." If anyone is frightened or saddened, it's hard to tell. And there are no jokes or signs of intimacy.

Yet it's a tense-enough story. The narration takes us through some unnerving spots. I mean, how would you like to parachute into enemy occupied territory at night, accompanied by boxes of explosives and espionage equipment, knowing that if you were caught you'd be executed summarily? I wouldn't want to make such a jump. I wouldn't even look forward to getting into the airplane.

It's informative and well directed but if you want to see similar stories that are executed with some craftsmanship, try "The Train" or "13 Rue Madeleine."

Teddy Baird was a British Assistant Director and later producer who got involved with literary projects -- things like PYGMALION and THE WINSLOW BOY and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST -- although, of course, he could turn his hand to anything, like early credits for musical comedies like BRITANNIA OF BILLINGSGATE and a late farce DON'T PANIC BOYS. The one time he wore multiple hats, as producer and director and writer and star was as "Wing Commander E. Baird" for this movie, a documentary for the RAF.

It's a very exciting subject, so it's told in a dry and matter of fact manner, with much of it explained in voice over. Nonetheless, it is fascinating and exciting and demonstrates that in order to be a good producer, you need to know how to get it on the screen. Then, once the war was over, he could go back to the matter of getting Oscar Wilde done properly on the screen. I suppose that was why he fought.