The Silent Invasion

To soften the recent World Cup blow, Optimum offers this digitally restored wartime classic in which the Germans are not the winning team.
Set in a French village during WW2, the inevitable happens when one day, German tanks roll in to occupy the place. The commanding officer, Captain Von Strafen (Eric Flynn), tries his best to gain the friendship of the locals, albeit to little avail. There’s a surprise for you.

Meanwhile, a group of villagers are planning on a string of sabotage acts and begin with destroying the German truck-convey. The mission is headed by Argen – with additional help from Mme. Veroux, her pretty niece Maria (Petra Davies) as well as her young nephew Jean. Unfortunately, the plan fails and Argen and Jean are taken prisoner. Despite Von Strafen’s orders not to shoot them, both are publicly executed on orders of his intervening superior.

Outraged over the unfair execution, the villagers induce Maria to obtain information from Von Strafen, who has fallen in love with her. Although initially in denial for the obvious reasons, she can’t help developing feelings for him, too. As her emotions grow stronger, she soon sees herself in an impossible situation: if she continues to see the German Captain, then either her own life as well as his life will be endangered, or the fate of all the villagers who rely on Maria to finally turn their mission of sabotage into a success…

Despite its relatively short running time, The Silent Invasion provides plenty of action and drama for those who enjoy the occasional trip down memory lane (for good or for worse). The acting is solid throughout, although Eric Flynn’s ‘Captain Von Strafen’ is almost too soft and sympathetic to make for a believable Nazi oppressor. There is, however, a witty wordplay attached to his name, for ‘Strafen’ means ‘Punishments’ in German.
Also, the effortless way in which Maria extracts vital information from him seems slightly implausible. It is simply explained with the fact that the Captain is an unhappy man and therefore drinks too much, and subsequently talks too much. Oh, and fellow Nazis can’t seem to figure out that sudden sabotage attempts against their own troops might be the direct result of French Mademoiselle Maria extracting information from her ‘Enemy’ beau. Mon dieu, if only everything in life were that easy! It’s a real surprise that such flaw stems from the pen of Brian Clemens, a screenwriter famous for cult classics like The Avengers and The Professionals.

Btw, the movie is in b/w and the sound is mono.