In my previous work life, one of my favorite days on the job was spending the day at a small regional airport getting b-roll of planes taking off. I was in the grass between the runway and taxiway, just getting one plane after another.
I mention this because I know first-hand how difficult it can be to get the perfect shot of a plane in takeoff, following it at the right pace, and from the correct zoom distance, to get it as it accelerates past. One of the first things I noticed about 1953’s Appointment in London is how well they got footage like that, though the footage is of WWII British bombers.
There are many great-looking shots of planes in flight here. The picture also incorporates terrifying, real-life war footage in its climatic sequence of a bombing raid over Europe. The only effect which was less-than-perfect here is the use of miniatures in a couple of scenes, but these are employed with restraint.
But why am I going on at such lengths about the quality of the airplane footage? Unfortunately, that’s because there’s a not much else here.
For much of this picture, I watched in confusion as what appeared to be hints of intrigue at a British air base instead turned out repeatedly to be red herrings. Maybe UK viewers were good with this, I don’t know. Since they eat those god-awful kippers at breakfast, maybe those were rationed during the war and they had to eat herrings instead.
One of these plot cul-de-sacs has Bryan Forbes as a pilot who gets caught sending a coded telegram after each mission is complete. Given Forbes is sending these from a telephone on the base suggests his character is not a master spy. Turns out all he was doing was covering up his marriage, as the air force didn’t want married men on bombing runs. It’s like some sort of bizarre monastic order.
Forbes’s commanding officer is played by Dirk Bogarde who, as is true of any movie he is in, is the reason to see this film. Curiously, we get a very earnest Bogarde here, lacking his usual droll humor and aloofness. Maybe sarcasm was also rationed in the war.
Despite all this, I still liked Appointment in London overall, but I can only recommend it to die-hard anglophiles. It is very well-made and the air combat sequence near the end is darkly exhilarating, even by today’s standards. And you get Dirk Bogarde, though not the Bogarde fans might be looking for.
Dir: Philip Leacock
Starring Dirk Bogarde, Ian Hunter, Bryan Forbes
Watched on StudioCanal blu-ray (Region B)