Friday, February 4, 2011

Short Film Showcase - Bon Voyage (1944)

Bon Voyage, 1944.
Alfred Hitchcock
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Starring John Blythe and 'The Molière Players'.

The first of two propaganda films made by Alfred Hitchcock on behalf of the British Ministry of Information and designed to boost morale for the French Resistance, Bon Voyage tells the story of a daring escape from a Nazi prison by RAF Sergeant John Dougall (John Blythe). Co-scripted by Angus MacPhail, the man credited by Hitchcock as coining the term 'MacGuffin', Bon Voyage is also notable for its early use of multiple viewpoints - a technique employed by Akira Kurosawa to great effect in the 1950 classic Rashomon - and the 'unreliable flashback' that Hitchcock would revisit that same year with Stage Fright.

Receiving only sporadic screenings in France at the time of its release, Bon Voyage was shelved for a number of years before being broadcast on US television alongside follow-up Aventure Magalache in the early 1990s.


Embed courtesy of Internet Archive.

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