Arriving in London at the end of 1943, anxious to do his bit for the war effort completing Lifeboat. Hitchcock - through the mediation of Sidney Bernstein - found himself making two half-hour features for the Ministry of Information. Both were short in French, using an ad hoc group called the Molière Players, and intended solely (no English versions were prepared) for propaganda purposes, encouraging resistance in France and, especially, her colonies. Despite rough edges and occasionally recalcitrant cattle among the cast, both films are surprisingly ambitious, beautifully shot by the great ex-UFA cameraman Günther Krampf, and fascinating for their wealth of Hichcockery.