I'll Met by Moonlight aka Night Ambush

Well pleased with the DVD and service

Most enjoyable and well acted.As some of the dialogue was in German and Greek, I tried using the English subtitles.This worked fine when the dialogue was in English. However when it was in German or Greek, so were the subtitles.Very odd.

The hero, Patrick Leigh Fermore, was one of England's most amazing writer adventurers, beginning with his teenage trek from Holland to Constantinople. Like Sir Richard Burton, a natural linguist, he relied on his Homeric & Attic Greek to help him learn modern Greek in the Cretan dialect. A WW II hero, his own books are nearly flawless. In this story, written by his #2 man in the adventure, They kidnap a German general, take him to Cairo, & thereby save his life. Otherwise he'd probably been executed after WW II for war crimes like both his predecessor & his successor. Fermore's own books are available.

This film takes some liberties, but tells the story pretty well. The photography, even in black and white, is gorgeous! Makes me want to visit Crete someday. Anyone with an interest in WWII history will enjoy this film.

After spending a little time in Crete was wonderful to see the terrain again. Also the film was from my youth and loved seeing it again.

History buffs, admirers of the actor Dirk Bogard and fans of Patrick Leigh Fermor, whose book inspired the film, will be thrilled to find a copy of the movie "Ill Met By Moonlight". The story features British and Cretan resistance fighters in World War II and was filmed in Crete. Fermor himself, according to letters written to Deborah Devonshire published this year as "In Tearing Haste", actually spoke some of the lines in Greek which were lip-synched by the actors. A perfect gem of a film. Thank you.

Interesting movie for fans of the WWII Black and White genre. Reasonably good plot and characters, if a bit simple. Due to when it was filmed the movie is a bit heavy on Greek resistance flag waving and such, but if you can get by that its not too bad at all. Its the "kidnap the bad guy" plot with a very good location and some twists. Not quite the Guns of Navarrone but watchable and collectable.

I was really disappointed with this movie. It’s a celebration of the Greek resistance to the Nazis on the island of Crete during World War II. The problem is nothing really happens. The majority of the movie is a few British agents and Greek fighters trying to smuggle a German general off the island. Most of it is them hiding and then running and then hiding again. It just comes off as a dud.

I have the escape route they used across Crete on a GPS file (They have a marathon run along the route) and fully intend to follow it on a trail bike when we can travel again. Crete is a brilliant place as long as you stay on the left of the island (WEST CRETE) . The film is good and worth the view. A bit mild as the invaders were far worse than portrayed. But watch the film, read the book and visit the island. It's like Corfu was in the 70's before it was spoilt. Food is fantastic and the people (in the West) are very friendly, helpful and pleasant. Tip Waves on the Rock new apartments and The Old Phoenix Hotel... Top floor rooms if you can, and yes with GPS it is possible and exciting to get there in a 4x4. Watch the film, read the book and go as soon as you can. Rent a 4x4 and travel. It's utterly captivating.

Made in 1957 and also known as "Night Ambush", this is a good, solid, honest black-and-white British war film relating an almost unbelievable but true story. Below, more of my impressions, with some SPOILERS.1. The true storyIn the night of 26 April 1944, on occupied Crete, a mixed British and Greek commando from Special Operations Executive (SOE) captured General Heinrich Kreipe, one of the highest ranking German officers on the island. Eluding all German attempts to find them thanks to the support of Cretan anti-Axis guerillas and local population, SOE soldiers managed to escape from the island and bring the captured general to Cairo.Even if general Kreipe was immediately replaced and the whole island of Crete remained in German hands until the end of war, this operation was nevertheless a good propaganda coup and a welcome morale booster for allied cause - it also certainly embarassed, humiliated and infuriated German leadership... Very exceptionally, as the whole operation was bloodless, Germans for this one time didn't take any reprisals against Cretan civilians - making it one of the extremely rare light-hearted episodes of WWII.All protagonists survived the war and they actually met one more time - in 1972 in Greece, for a special TV show about the whole incident.2. The filmThe whole episode being free of human tragedy and indeed containing some quasi-humouristic elements, it was the right decision for the director to make this film in a lighter tonation than most of true war-time stories. The main protagonist, British SOE Major Patrick Leigh Fermor (played by Dirk Bogarde), who was nicknamed "Philedem" (I am not certain what that means) by his Cretan comrades, is a typical English eccentric, elaborately negligent in his outside appearance, but also perfectly well educated and every inch a gentleman - dashing and fearless he is also so popular that local population makes songs about him... His men, both British and Greek, are highly efficient and well trained soldiers, but in some aspects they look also a little like a bunch of pirates - and they seem to consider this war, at least on the surface of things, like good sport...)))This film wouldn't be so good without the excellent performance by Marius Goring (he was British and it was his REAL name) who plays General Kreipe, a highly dignified man and professional officer aged 50, who for obvious reasons is REALLY not happy about the whole situation and will do his best to stay civil, preserve his dignity but also give some hard time to his captors... From what I could gather about the real general Kreipe, he was actually not such a bad fellow and even if he fought very hard on the Eastern Front and then went to garrison duty on an occupied island swarming with guerillas, he was never even accused (even least convicted) of any war crimes. Marius Goring portrayed him very well indeed and it really contributed to the success of this film.If you make an effort, you can notice both Christopher Lee and David McCallum in small cameos - the former playing quite obviously a particularly nasty German officer...)))There is virtually no fighting in this film, so if you need such thing in your war movies, you will not like this one. A large part of the film is actually about hiking in the mountain wilderness - with some verbal sniping and some quite good jokes, especially about one of SOE soldiers who stubbornly refuses to wash - AT ALL!This is not some kind of great masterpiece, but a good and I believe mostly accurate account of a true war-time story, one which exceptionally was bloodless and tragedy-free. I liked it and I will keep the DVD. Enjoy!

A classic example of self-congratulatory post-war jingoistic banner-waving whereby excruciatingly wooden acting is executed by an uninspired cast who variously portray essentially one dimensional heavily stereotyped characters; all the whilst wilfully deviating from the eponymous monograph of William Stanley Moss, one of the main protagonists of this escapade who by directorial ineptitude is so poorly depicted in this shamabolic farago. My advice: read Billy's book and revel in the nail-biting audacity of some truly brave men and consign this puerile drivel to the bin. As I did.

This is a true account of the fighting on Crete during the Second World War, when a small group of Englishmen were fighting alongside the Andarte - the Cretan Partisans.Patrick Leigh Fermor (known as Paddy) was the hero of the hour, when he pulled off the kidnap of the German General, Kreipe, who was running the operations on Crete for the Nazis.This film deals with the plans for the kidnap, the weeks of hiding from the pursuing Germans (determined to recover their General) and the eventual arrival of a boat to take him to Cairo, along with his captors.Although this action did not alter the goings-on during those terrible years on Crete, it was a great morale boost to the Allies, as the Germans were absolutely humiliated by the daring kidnap of their man in charge. The kidnap was originally planned because the German in charge was a cruel butcher, but when he was transferred, and replaced by Kreipe, Paddy Fermor and his band of men, decided to go ahead with the plan, even though General Kreipe was a much kinder man, well educated, spoke perfect English, and had a lot in common with Patrick Leigh Fermor.Paddy Fermor was a lifelong friend of Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, and I have just read the book about their lively and very funny correspondence. They wrote to each other often, over a span of over sixty years. It was in this book that I discoverd the facts about the kidnapping on Crete, and ordered the film to fill in the gaps.Ill Met By Moonlight is a very good film, and I enjoyed it very much.

The action is set in wartime Crete. (Rather disappointingly, filmed in Spain.(Production costs?)) The plot follows the book of the same name by W.. Stanley Moss who was 2I/c during the operation. Dirk Bogarde plays an excellent Patrick Leigh Fermor. a man whose scholarship, travels and achievements led not only to a DSO, an OBE, and finally, a knighthood in 2004. (His father, an eminent geologist, had also been knighted.) David Oxley plays Moss, with Marius Goring as Major General Kreipe, the target of their kidnapping plot.Ill Met by Moonlight is an ideal example of the work of SOE, where 'amateurs' proved time and time again that they were anything but.What is not shown is the extreme antipathy that existed between the Cretans and their German oppressors. The islanders liked nothing better than meeting their foes at knife-point. A policy which invoked responses that made decimation seem almost kindly.