MovieChat Forums > It Happened Here (1966) Discussion > Totally believable + very chilling.

Totally believable + very chilling.


It`s a terrible shame that this unique piece of work is largely unknown(even in the U.K.)although hopefully the recent r2 dvd release will intrigue people.

The very fact that it was made without the backing of a major studio & co-directed by a couple of teenagers is remakable in itself.The dvd booklet states that no stock footage was used,most of the peolple involved were not actors and all the equipment was WW2 genuine.

The film is told through the eyes of an Irish nurse who finds she has to join a fascist organization in order to carry on her profession, which brings her into contact & conflict with the Partisans & the collaborators.She has to make a choice:Does she acquiesce or resist?What would you do?Both points of view are explored intelligently & plausibly with the need to resist the invader tempered with the need to get the country back on it`s feet again.Fascism is largely indoctrinated via the organisation: "Immediate Action" although there are also British S.S. units ,some of which are fighting on the Eastern front.We learn that most German troops are fighting in the East but we see some fascinating footage of them relaxing in London:marching past Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, fraternising with the local ladies & riding on a red London bus.These chilling images really make you believe "It Happened Here."

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[deleted]

Quite right - all the actors volunteered. When I first saw this film I was astounded at how well it turned out given that it was filmed on such a large time scale with a budget of a mere £7000 and filmed on 16mm.

On that note does anyone know whether it was shot on 16mm just because 32mm was prohibitively expensive or also because it added an extra bit to the 1940's feel of the film?

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Only part of the film was shot on 16mm for reasons of economy. The switch to 35mm occurred when Stanley Kubrick saw the newsreel sequence, and was so impressed by it that he donated the short ends of "Dr. Strangelove" to Kevin & Andrew. Much of the 16mm footage was abandoned, including (sadly) a brilliant and grimly realistic battle sequence. The 16mm material that remained was optically blown up to 35mm in the labs.

I worked on the film for about two years, and had such a great time that I signed up for Kevin & Andrew's second feature "Winstanley" which I worked on from beginning to end.

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Sounds interesting patk. What did you do on the film?

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Sorry not to have replied sooner. You'll seem me on the acting credits as "Pat Kearney" although I did very little acting indeed. I was mostly behind the camera, helping to set up lights, pull dollies around, untangle cables and anything else that needed to be done. I was occasionally drummed into appearing in front of the camera when extras were limited, but I preferred the production roles. On Kevin &
Andrew's second film I acted -- if it can be described as such -- a lot more, but whenever possible helped out behind the scenes.

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Thanks for replying. Having read "How It Happened Here" it still amazes me that the film was ever finished.

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I wonder if many people know that there actually WAS an English SS unit formed by the Germans which fought on the Russian front in the last months of WWII.
It recruited mainly British POW`s who had been in Mosley`s British Fascist party before the war, was never very large and never really trusted by the Nazi`s but it does show that this film is not all that implausable.

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I remember seeing a picture of a British S.S. soldier wearing the field-grey tunic with a Union Jack stitched on the shoulder.Can`t remember if it was in a book I read or in the paper but the picture must be online somewhere.There was a documentary about British S.S. a few years ago and it stated that only about 30 or so volunteered.It`s true the German`s didn`t trust them and some were executed after the war.The programme claimed to have tracked down a survivor in Australia but the guy,if he was genuine,didn`t have much to say.

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I think this might be the link you are looking for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Free_Corps

Doing some additional trawling round the internet turned up this militaria site where there are some photographs, not only of the British Free Corps uniform but of the fictional `Black Prince` unit that appears in this film.
Its rather scary just how similar they are.

http://www.bills-bunker.privat.t-online.de/70216.html

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Thanks for that!

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[deleted]

Most likely its this one from the Bovington museum,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jagdpanther_Tank,_Bovington.jpg

"Any plan that involves loosing your hat is a BAD plan.""

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I think so. The only other Jagdpanthers in Britain are the one in the Imperial War Museum and the recently restored running example of the SdKfz Foundation. The one in the IWM has it's side cut out so my bet is that it's the Bovvy one. It seems back then it was still a runner. There's a SdKfz251 used in this movie too, isn't there? Also presumably the one at Bovvy.
Another movie which used genuine German armour- a Tiger I, prsumably Bovvy's again was They Were Not Divided.
BTW As far as can be ascertained the British Freekorps never saw combat.

"I was left in no doubt as to the severity of the hangover when the cat stamped into the room."

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BTW As far as can be ascertained the British Freekorps never saw combat.
Amazingly there is an episode of Foyle's War half-devoted to the British Freikorps which has one of its members covertly sending information back to the UK. Which is, apparently, exactly what the Germans thought was happening and why they never trusted them near a battle and probably used them as a channel of disinformation.

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