Mosquito Squadron (1970)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Watchable for the famous DH Mosquito but nothing else to hold it of any merit, sadly. As others have mentioned, poor acting, sixties-style hairdressing rather than a brylcreem-and-bright-red-lipstick timeline, the film is particularly bad and lacking. Also, as mentioned, stealing far too many aerial scenes from the superior '633 Squadron' make this a dim, Sunday afternoon type of low-budget flick. Interesting plot, actually, however maybe badly executed, mention of 'Highball', not quite the normal 'bouncing bomb', but a device developed mainly for the navy, to bounce against enemy warships. The plan is thus, to 'bounce' them into the mouth of a tunnel to destroy a 'V3' rocket facility. Added to this Munroe's (McCallum) quandary of his adopted 'brother' and superior Officer 'Scotty' (David Buck), missing presumed dead, but actually among the POWS, with an amnesiac bump on his head/unaware of whom HE is.The Nazis are going to use Scotty AND the POWs as a 'Human shield', once they have got wind of the coming RAF attack. Complicating things further of course, is the fact Quint is in love now with Scotty's 'alleged' widow. It's all meant to be hush- hush, especially more so, (David Dundas - he of the 'Blue Jeans' song, years ago and featured on a Levi's advert) blabs to everyone about the POWs plight after being told NOT to - leading to a so-called bonus operation with 'Highball' and the assistance of the French Resistance to bomb the POWs compound to free them ONLY when the V3 facility is destroyed FIRST (any Highball bombs 'left over' are only THEN to be allocated to free the prisoners).This has deliberate echoes of the 'Operation Jericho mission' also executed by DH Mosquitoes. Character actor George Layton (he of the famous British 'Doctor'comedy TV series) mentions this was his first film role. Nice to see the pretty Suzanne Neve as Scotty's 'widow', Beth, but not a lot to remember this for, EXCEPT as I've said, its stealing of 633 Squadron's scenes!

Mosquito Squadron gets a very bad press, and most of it is deserved, but to be fair, if you watch it when you chip off early from work on a mid day afternoon, it delivers on quite a few levels. It is not too long so you don't get bogged down too much and its got a reasonable plot (as long as you don't compare it with Operation Crossbow and 633 Squadron - which are not only similar plot wise, but were shamelessly looted for much of their footage by this film). The romantic stuff is a total drag and some of the acting is pretty bad, also you would have to watch this alone or at best with a drunk mate, because the special effects are awful, and I hate it when my wife laughs at me because of stuff I watch! But I can forgive the acting, because it's a rare war film that gives us 'Bridge on the River Kwai' dialogue, and beside's MS is far superior in this sense to the dreadful acting in 'The Alamo' or 'Tora Tora Tora', which both had huge budgets to waste. MS is a B-Movie, lets not forget that, and much of the unfair criticism comes from people who compare the film with other late 60's war films, or boring plane spotters, when it should be watched and enjoyed as nothing more than a boy's own type adventure. But if you are willing to overlook the 1968 look of the film and the pointless tank battle at the end, you will be rewarded. Give me this film and a 4-pack of Stella on a wet afternoon, and i'll be happy!

This film succeeds in being as poor as "633 Squadron", only that there is no character to be so ridiculous as Chakiris' with his rock'n'roll player hairdo in the latter, nor a sedan from the sixties to appear in the background in that moving love scene. But "Mosquito Squadron" has an intriguing scene, and I profit from this opportunity to ask if someone else also noticed it. When Quint enters the empty room of his deceased pal with his now widow,the camera shows a poster on the wall reading "ASI / NBG ? QBI (in red)/ R.I.P.!". "R. I. P.", of course, stands for "requiescat in pacem", rest in peace. But, all those remaining letters, what do they mean? Does anyone know or have any idea?

Having seen this in a theater in 1969 as a kid, it kept my complete attention and that's not an easy thing for a WW2 film to do to a youngster more interested in such things as Quatermass and the Pit, etc.Therefore, I will give it the benefit of the doubt here, and a bit higher rating than otherwise. I recently saw it again on TV and it is very much like a TV movie done by HBO or such from the 1980s, yet still was quite intriguing. There's the requisite romantic subplot that interrupts the mission and the action. I suppose that's necessary but I could do without it.I do think the direction, plot and dialog are very adequate, though not extraordinary. But then British films of an average quality always outshine US films of average quality in these areas anyway. There is something about British characters and dialog where understatement is the norm, and they do not have the typically overblown histrionics of US film characters. Plus their dialog is fairly decent without overuse of vulgar terms, unlike US films.