Anthony Asquith,son of the Earl of Oxford,public school and University - educated,was a charming,intelligent and sophisticated man who made films that tended to reflect his personality."Pygmalion","The Winslow Boy","The Browning Version" were all popular with the moviegoers of Middle England who comprised his core audience.But in the late 1950s he suddenly changed tack and produced two extraordinary works debating the nature of courage,moral and physical."Carrington VC" starred David Niven,and "Orders to kill" featured Associated British contract actor Paul Massie. Canadian - born Mr Massie - slim,aesthetic - looking and sensitive - had a somewhat irregular movie career but won a richly - deserved BAFTA for "Most promising newcomer" for his performance as a French - speaking American flyer sent over to Occupied France to assassinate a Resistance member turned traitor. He is willing if not happy to kill from 20,000 feet up,but mano a mano is quite a different matter,particularly as the more research he does on his putative victim the more doubts he has about the man's guilt. He expresses his misgivings to his superiors but they are implacable,he must carry out his mission. "Orders to kill" brings into question the ethics of war just as "Carrington VC" does its effects on the individual. Is it ever "right" to take a human life even if such an act is sanctioned by Church and State?This is an argument familiar from the days of Capital Punishment,and a pillar of the stance of the Conscientious Objector. Will Massie's moral scruples be interpreted as cowardice by London in just the same fashion as would his refusal to fly any more bombing missions on similar grounds? Asquith reveals no easy answers. Not a War Film per se,"Orders to Kill" remains the British Cinema's finest examination of the minutiae of man's conduct in time of conflict. Generally ignored when Puffin Asquith's movies are discussed,it is criminally neglected and the work of a man of conscience who understood such insubstantial words as "Duty" and "Courage" and wasn't afraid to put a debate about their meaning to the cinema audience.

I saw this film on the late show about 25 years ago & haven't seen it since but I still remember much of it vividly. A soldier is parachuted into occupied France during World War II & is "ordered to kill" a resistance leader who is believed to have been collaborating with the Nazis. However, as he works his way into the trust of his target, he begins to believe that he is a loyal Frenchman & not a Nazi sympathizer. He expresses his doubts to his superiors, but they order him to continue his mission. His decision & its consequences form the climax of the movie. Despite its obscurity, the film packs quite an emotional punch & I dearly wish I could see it again. Perhaps time has burnished its image in my mind, but I would rate this as a superior war movie.

This remarkable little film contains some excellent performances, the best of all coming from Irene Worth (Leonie, Paul's contact in occupied Paris),and from Leslie French as the suspected informer Lafitte. The musical score too is noteworthy, particularly when it picks up a nursery tune used by Paul to commit details of his mission to memory and amplifies it to emphasise the horrible consequences. The script and handling of Paul's doubts (brushed aside by Worth) and finally the completion of his mission are unforgettable. It should be noted that this is one of the best scripts from the film critic Paul Dehn - he also made a notable contribution to Jack Clayton's fine film "The Innocents".