| Landfall | |
| Director: | Ken Annakin |
| Producer: | Victor Skutezky |
| Based On: | novel by Nevil Shute |
| Starring: | Michael Denison Patricia Plunkett |
| Music: | Philip Green |
| Cinematography: | Wilkie Cooper |
| Editing: | Peter Graham Scott |
| Studio: | Associated British Picture Corporation |
| Distributor: | Associated British-Pathé |
| Runtime: | 86 minutes[1] |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | £141,127 (UK)[2] |
Landfall is a 1949 British war film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Michael Denison, Patricia Plunkett and Kathleen Harrison.[3] The screenplay was by Talbot Jennings from an adaptation by Gilbert Gunn and Anne Burnaby of the 1940 novel by Nevil Shute.[4]
Rick, a British Coastal Command pilot in World War II based near Portsmouth, sinks what he believes to be a German submarine, unaware that a British submarine is also in that part of the Channel. When it emerges that the British submarine has been lost with all hands, a Navy enquiry is held and the senior naval officer concludes that Rick mistakenly attacked a British submarine in a friendly-fire incident. While the enquiry finds that the captain of the submarine was principally at fault for poor navigation, Rick is officially criticised for having failed to properly visually identify his target. Although his commanding officer disagrees with the court's finding and encourages Rick to stay with the squadron, Rick requests another posting.
Rick's fiancée Mona, a barmaid, overhears information that might help uncover what really happened to the British submarine. She reports this information to the Navy, who re-open the investigation and find that a German submarine torpedoed the British submarine and took its place, running on the surface until it was sunk by Rick.
In the interim, Rick's new posting is a dangerous flying duty, testing a new type of guided bomb. After his aircraft crashes and he is critically injured, he is met at the hospital by the naval captain who originally ruled against him, and he tells Rick that he has been exonerated in the re-opened enquiry.
It was one of two films Ken Annakin made on loan out from Gainsborough Pictures to Associated British, the other being Double Confession (1950). Annakin wrote "Neither had very good scripts, nor exciting casting... except for Peter Lorre" who was in Double Confession.[5]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Competent but unexciting story of some 1940 adventures in Coastal Command: Air Force (synthetic jollity) and Naval (strong, silent service) backgrounds interspersed with heavily humorous excerpts from the familiar home life of Kathleen Harrison."[6]
Variety wrote: "It is nothing more than a soap opera replete with cliche and contrived incidents. It unsuccessfully mixes war heroics and romance, with a slight comment on the breakdown of England's social caste system."[7]
The Radio Times gave the film two out of five stars, calling it a "dainty item from a vanished era of British war movies."[8]
TV Guide rated the film similarly, concluding that "[a]dequate performances are marred by a script burdened with some soap opera dramatics."[9]