When the crew of a British bomber bails out over occupied Holland, they are sheltered by the Dutch resistance. Using Holland as a stand-in for occupied Britain, Michael Powell here examines the threat of “everyday fascism” (BFI). In reviving this rare Powell film at a recent Museum of Modern Art retrospective, William K. Everson noted:
“The theme of the bailed-out aircrew, fighting their way home through occupied territory, and encountering local underground freedom fighters, was not altogether novel in 1942. Hollywood had recognized the dramatic and showmanship possibilities in the theme the previous year, and...Raoul Walsh's Desperate Journey, a superficially identical film...came out at virtually the same time....
“Nevertheless, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing was a popular success, and was one of the earlier British war films to successfully combine the characteristics of the documentary with the qualities of the traditional narrative film.... British wartime audiences were more than sated with documentaries for training, informational and propagandist purposes, but when well-done, as here, the mating of documentary with narrative could be a tremendous morale-booster...and its reminder of the activities of the Dutch underground was not only a solid propagandist boost for an ally, but rather more believable than the Warner Brothers claim of a solid resistance movement within Germany itself.
“One of Our Aircraft Is Missing is still a solidly entertaining movie...however, it no longer has the topicality and sense of urgency that gave it such punch in 1942, and perhaps its main interest today is in the astonishing array of talent both in front of and behind the camera.... The cast includes the names of many notables on the way up (Peter Ustinov and Roland Culver among them).... Even Michael Powell has several scenes near the beginning as the jaunty Dispatching Officer (‘Off you go, chaps!').
“One of Our Aircraft Is Missing can also claim the dubious distinction of being the first of many Michael Powell films to be severely mauled by its U.S. distributor. United Artists took some twenty minutes out of it here, while another seven minutes disappeared when the film hit the TV markets.”