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Reviews
The Decoy Bride (2011)
An unknown film with a great story, beautifully acted
I found this film by chance while browsing through other titles and expected nothing of it or the acting until I'd read the two first reviews here. A great, unusual playful story set on a small Scots island, I think in the Outer Hebrides, with a quiet happiness, lots of healthy humour and a collection of low-key actors as extras, who fit perfectly into the wonderful scenery of Scotland at its best. They come very close to the originals who actually do live on these islands and maybe some did in fact come from the local community.
The referral to the island having a "haunted public toilet" reminded me of a female Italian tourist asking one of the three only residents on the island of Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde, a lighthouse keeper, if there was a café nearby. She received the answer "just follow the track to the old quarry and it's next to Woolworths (department store). A low budget film, which with time should really become very successful. I was fascinated from start to finish.
Ill Met by Moonlight (1957)
Long out-dated film of little value
Admittedly, had I seen this film when it came out, then I probably would have given it an 8 instead of a 6. But looking at it from an older point of view over 50 years later, I was really disappointed.
There are three categories of groups involved:
The British, who have great plans to capture a German general and really believe they can drive through 22 German checkpoints with the General having a fit on the floor of the car without being stopped. They have no real plan, no communication system and seem to think the whole thing is "jolly good fun."
Then we have the Greeks, who don't really understand that the whole thing is probably going to cause the SS troops to wipe out a few mountain villages in retaliation. They have nothing better to do than run around laughing and shouting, shaking hands and kissing everybody in sight. So instead of informing the group that about 500 German soldiers are just coming round the corner, it's better to greet long lost friends, before passing on the information. Top gag is of course having a drunken party in a house in the village in the night with a British officer in uniform eating a sheep's head at a table in the middle of the room. The place is filled with singing and dancing, the door isn't locked, they have no sentry .... Really makes the Greeks look completely incompetent and stupid. To say nothing of the British.
And last but not least we have the Germans, who don't even bother to stop the General's car, filled with strange bearded men not in German uniform, as it goes through one checkpoint after another. Really made the Germans look completely incompetent as well. Which they certainly weren't.
If you like this type of film, it can be watched as a relic of the past, but don't expect anything like logic or a real-life story; I had expected much more drama and far less incompetence combined with unintended ridiculous comedy.