31 JULY 1941, Page 10

THE CINEMA

Target for Tonight " At the Gaumont and the Empire.

IT is not simply because Target for Tonight presents the mos tragic story of modern times—the story of scientific destnactict from the air—that the film is so deeply moving. Neither is because of any direct appeal to patriotic sentiment. The Germ: Baptism of Fire tried to make propaganda for bombing in term of national right and might and succeeded only in becoming di:• turbingly like an account of sports' day at a school for homicidal maniacs. Target for Tonight achieves its dramatic purpose virtue of that kind of truth which is also beauty. It is the nu not only of superb machines and the patterns of organisati which serves them but of purloined boots and the jokes of ma anxious for the sight of home.

The film tells the story of a raid over Germany from the moment when the reconnaissance aircraft delivers its photograpi of the target by parachute at Bomber Command headquarters a the moment when the crew of the last returning Wellington their modest reports. It is this aircraft which the film follon to Germany. First the ground-organisation has gone precis,* and dispassionately to work. Plans have been laid and discussed in accents ranging from Scots pungent enough to delight the native ear of director Harry Watt to the " la-de-da " which once was guaranteed to raise a laugh of derision from any audience—bg which this time is just the voice of a real man talking competent! about his job. At last the aircraft are shepherded to the flare-pat and the cigar-shaped silhouette of aircraft " F—for Freddie' points its nose towards Germany.

The crew find their target and bomb it. We see the flak flashing past them and the bombs exploding on the ground below. The wireless-operator is hit and the radio-set put out of action. Ore engine is damaged and the aircraft becomes long overdue. liar both for crew and ground-staff this is all part of the job-4 pleasant job and an exciting one—but a job from which, at 21 costs, emotion must be excluded. The home aerodrome is fog bound, but the pilot brings her in at last. There is no demo stration. Dimly we see the code-letter F glide slowly to rest. 1 the control-room they wipe the operations-board clean, ready for tomorrow.

Target for Tonight is the screen's best piece of factual reportig and it would have been better still if the staged scenes of Gering reaction to the bombing had been omitted. At this point milt does the film cease to be entirely objective in its approach. BY the mastery he displays of both technical and natural hums material in this superbly made film Harry Watt establishes fa himself a special place in British film-making. It is high time also that Jonah Jones was recognised for the extraordinal standard of his camera-work in a number of Crown Film Unit productions, of which this is the latest. There is no 1'611