'TARGET FOR TONIGHT'

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1941, Page 14

'TARGET FOR TONIGHT'

FAMOUS AIR PJCTURE

"Target for Tonight" was known to people who are still to see it in New Zealand long before it could reach here, for it is one of the few pictures that has been mentioned in Empire broadcasts. That suggests -that it is either propaganda or is extraordinarily good; it is both. It is frankly war and Royal Air Force propaganda, but it is the right, convincing sort of propaganda, a straight, factual presentation of what happens each night when bombers start out on longrange work. Without making direct comparisons with some of the "big" air pictures that have so far been screened, let it be said ihat in this film there is not a star by name, fame, and heart-fluttering appeal, the airmen are R.A.F. airmen, officers, and men; the high command does not work against a background of high-powered high pressure, but does with impressive calm an involved and painstaking duty of preparation and direction of the Wellington bomber attack on the "target for tonight." There is no villainy, exposed or suspected, and that, surely, is very new. There is no blonde in the bomb bay, and that is good; there are some W.A.A.F.s, but no streams of flappers through the station. Finally there is no special orchestral background, but fine musical accompaniment and effect are given by the Royal Air Force Central Band. Yet, lacking all this big air picture hooey, glamour, whooped-up heart interest, the final shattering crash, and even a plot, "Target for Tonight" works from fact to fact to a conclusion as intense and thrilling as any war air film where the sky is the limit only when it comes to flying. The story—certainly not the plot—is that of a Wellington bomber ("F for Freddie") which with five more Wellingtons leaves an English air base on a summer evening for an oil dump far inside Germany. It bombs the target (several misses, one terrible successful final smash) through "flak" '■ which is frightening even on the screen and starts back for England in bad shape. Fog comes down over England early- in the morning, and you who see the picture share— if you can take it—the responsibility and determination of the crew to get through. You do get through, and the picture is over, but the fine lift it gives to the spirit lasts.

The picture will be shown in Wellington shortly.