New Release: Ill Met By Moonlight DVD

British officers David Oxley (l.) and Dirk Bogarde are Ill Met By Midnight.

Hen’s Tooth Video released the 1957 British war movie Ill Met By Moonlight (also known as Night Ambush) on DVD on Aug. 16, 2011, for the list price of $19.95, marking the film’s disc premiere in the U.S.

Written, produced and directed by the legendary filmmaking team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes), the World War II movie follows two British officers (Despair‘s Dirk Bogarde, David Oxley) who are assigned to kidnap a German General (Marius Goring) from the Nazi occupied island of Crete and deliver him to Allied forces in Cairo. Aided by local patriots, the abduction itself goes smoothly, but the Brits’ subsequent action-filled escape across the rocky Cretan landscape proves to be more problematic.

Based on W. Stanley Moss’ autobiographical account of the operation, Ill Met By Moonlight was the last collaboration between Powell and Pressburger, whose filmography includes such classic movies as The Battle of the River Plate (1956), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948).

Released in the U.S. with the title of Night Ambush, the film was initially trimmed by its American distributor to a running time of 93 minutes. Hen’s Tooth’s restored DVD features the original uncut 104 minute widescreen version of the film.

Oh, and the title Ill Met By Moonlight is a quote from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in case you were wondering…

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