NIGHT RAIDERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24133, 27 November 1941, Page 13

NIGHT RAIDERS

IMPRESSIVE FILM SHOWN Because of the hundreds of young New Zealanders serving with Britain's Bomber Command, and because of the intimate and accurate picture that it gives of the nightly work of that growing force, the film "Target for Tonight," made with the co-operation of the Royal Air Force, should prove of exceptional interest to Dominion audiences. It was shown in a preview at the PI aza Theatre last evening, when the audienco included a number of officers of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. "Target for To-night" has no cast of highly-paid actors. The men and women who appear are officers and men of the Royal Air Force, and women of the W.A.A.F., and the hero of the piece is "F for Freddie," a lumbering Wellington bomber that has actually seen war service. Outstanding impressions of the film are the picture it gives of the team spirit so essential in a bomber unit, the unobtrusive discipline, the casual bravery and consummate skill of the men of the Bomber Command. The audience is taken behind the scenes, shown how plans are made to attack a German oil refinery, and how they are carried out; it is given a seat in the Wellington as it lifts its bomb-load clear of the runway in the English sunset and flics across a darkening sky to Germany; and it is beside the bombaimer when he releases his bombs over a hotly-defended target. No attempt has been made to add "glamour," and there is no need. Photography is good, and the air force equipment shown genuine. Particularly welcome is the complete absence of either heroics or hysteria. This feature, adds to the very real tension felt when *'F for Freddie" is overdue, and later when its young pilot, returning to find his aerodrome fogbound, coolly consults his crew as to their preference for baling out or taking a chance of landing "blind." There is plenty of humour in the film, the humour of young men in high spirits. "Target for To-night" has been outstandingly successful overseas. Tt will begin a season at the Plaza Theatre to-morrow.