The Story of a Flemish Farm
| The Story of a Flemish Farm | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jeffrey Dell |
| Written by | Jeffrey Dell, Jill Craigie |
| Produced by | Sydney Box |
| Starring | Clive Brook, Clifford Evans, Jane Baxter |
| Cinematography | Eric Cross |
| Music by | Ralph Vaughn Williams |
| Distributed by | Two Cities Films |
Release date | 6 September 1943 |
Running time | 82 minutes |
| Language | English |
The Story of a Flemish Farm is a 1943 film, based on an actual incident. The film was made with the cooperation of both the Belgian government and the Belgian Air Force.
Plot
In May 1940, as German forces sweep across France and Belgium, the remains of the Belgian Air Force are bottled up near the Flemish coast, and billeted at a farm in the Flemish countryside. Ordered by their government to surrender, the commander gives orders that the regimental colours be honorably buried, rather than surrendered to the invaders. The few pilots with servicable aeroplanes fly to England to join the Allied airforces, whilst those remaining are forced to surrender.
Six months later, after fighting in the Battle of Britain, Jean Duclos, now a squadron leader, is persuaded by a fellow officer to return with him to retrieve the colours. The latter is killed before he can leave and Duclos persuades the authorities to parachute him into Belgium. He contacts his former commanding officer, now living as a civilian and secretly operating a resistance group. Duclos then returns incognito to the farm, where his late colleague's wife and child still live. She is initially unwilling to reveal where the colours are buried, believing that they aren't worth dying for. But she relents and the colours are retrieved.
Duclos must now travel through several hundred miles of dangerous and heavily guarded country to reach neutral Spain, from where he returns to England. On his return, the colours are paraded and formally re-presented to the Belgian Air Force.
Cast
Clive Brook - Major Lessart
Clifford Evans - Squadron Leader Jean Duclos
Jane Baxter - Tresha
Wylie Watson - Flemish farmer
Philip Friend - Fernand Matagne
Ronald Squire - Hardwicke
Brefni O'Rorke - Minister
Mary Jerrold - Mme Duclos
Charles Compton - Ledoux