Went the Day Well - Leslie Banks

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "48 Hours" or "Stormpatrullen" or "They Came in Khaki")

directed by Alberto Cavalcanti
UK 1942

Conceived, like Ealing's earlier The Next of Kin, to highlight the dangers of a Nazi invasion, Went the Day Well? is one of the most effective wartime films, although it suffered from the fact that, by the time of its release, the real threat of invasion had passed....Turville in Oxfordshire... [is] the sort of village invariably described as 'sleepy'. True to form, the villagers take some time to wake up to the presence of the enemy among them. But when they are roused, they respond with determination, resourcefulness and, when necessary, a surprising ruthlessness.

Excerpt of review from Mark Duguid located HERE

Poster

Theatrical Release: December 7th, 1942

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DVD Review: Optimum Home Entertainment (Ealing Studios Collection) - Region 2 - PAL

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Optimum Home Entertainment Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	1:28:27
Video	4:3 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.83 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Optimum Home Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 4:3 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: November 13th, 2006 Keep Case Chapters 8

Comments

First off, this film is available in the UK in three different editions. It can be purchased as a part of the "War Collection Volume 2", in "The Definitive Ealing Studios Collection Volume 1", and as a stand alone release from this set. The disc under review here is the single disc, but as all three releases are from Optimum, I strongly suspect that they are identical content-wise.

Okay, now for the disc itself. Let's start with the bad news. Unfortunately the release itself is barebones, not even sporting any optional subtitles. Given the relative importance of the film, the choice not to include any extras is disappointing. That being said however, the film is powerful enough that it more or less speaks for itself and while, say a commentary track covering the making of the film would have been appreciated, it would, by no means, be necessary. Now for the good news. The quality of this release is outstanding. The film, presented in the correct aspect ratio, contains the occasional scratch or two, but looks as though it has undergone an extensive restoration. For a film that is over 65 year old, it looks quite good. As far as the audio goes, it too seems restored. The soundtrack is always clear and contains no noticeable hisses, cracks, or background noise.

All in all, the film looks great and given the relatively cheap price of the stand alone disc, it would be a mistake to not pick up this highly important release.

-Brian Montgomery

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