Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"Bon Voyage" was one of two short French language propaganda films made by Alfred Hitchcock for the British Ministry of Information in 1944, the other being "Aventure Malgache". The film depicts the escape of a downed Royal Air Force air gunner through German-occupied France, with the assistance of Resistance fighters. The purpose was presumably to inform French exiles in Britain and America, and those living in territory controlled by the Free French Government, of the work being done, and the sacrifices being made, by their compatriots in the Resistance. The film is very short, at only 26 minutes long, and today is likely to be principally of interest to Hitchcock completists. It does, however, have its points of interest, notably its use of multiple viewpoints of the same events, a technique that looks forward to later films such as Kurosawa's "Rashomon". We see the airman being debriefed by a Free French intelligence officer in London and quickly realise that the intelligence officer knows things about the escape that the young man himself is unaware of, especially that he has been an unwitting pawn in a German scheme for getting information to one of their agents in Britain. Another theme of the film is a warning to the French to be on their guard against the dirty tricks of the Germans and their Vichy French collaborators. "Bon Voyage" was presumably intended principally as a propaganda film rather than as dramatic entertainment; had it been intended as the latter, it would have needed to have been at least three times as long. This is the reason why I have not awarded it a mark out of ten.

During WWII, Alfred Hitchcock made two short films that starred French actors and were entirely in French. They were made as propaganda films aimed at Free French audiences. While interesting as curios, there isn't much about them that seems like they were made by the master film maker. In fact, overall they are both incredibly forgettable films.This film is about two soldiers who escape from a Nazi prison camp. However, after one of them is able to make his way all the way back to Britain, he learns that the escape wasn't exactly what he thought it was...it was actually orchestrated by the Nazis! To explain all this, the film consists of several flashback scenes. Unfortunately, while mildly diverting, none of this is all that interesting.By the way, another person indicated that the captions were often clipped off in the DVD release. This is very odd, as I downloaded a free copy (it is in the public domain) and the archive.org copy had captions that were easy to read and never were partially obscured. This is one case, I guess, where the free copy is better than the one you might pay for yourself!

I have read a couple of message board comments on this film slating another reviewer (who didn't like it) for not understanding its "role" so for fear of upsetting those unable to cope with different opinions let me just say what I understand to be the case. Bon Voyage was one of two short films made by Hitchcock to encourage and bolster the French resistance by putting them at the core of the films and making them in French. It was an important gesture from the famous director and I'm sure was appreciated by those risking their lives in occupied France. However if all I am allow to comment on is its "role" then I should stop the review there.Fortunately for me, the sight of a "0 of 10 users found this review useful" slogan doesn't bother me at all, so I will do what I normally do and just state my opinion and move on. Other than the war-effort significance, there is not much to this film to recommend it for now. The plot is set up in a terribly stiff device of flashbacks which puts a lot of pressure of the narration – another device that doesn't totally work. The story itself has a few twists but the delivery does suck the life out of them and, contrary to what others might say, there isn't much in the way of classic Hitchcock to be had here. The end result is a plodding and simplistic tale that is dull and straightforward.So by all means, let's hold up Bon Voyage as a worthy effort on the part of Hitchcock and give it its dues in regards supporting the resistance but please let's not pretend that it is a good film worth seeking out because it most certainly is not.

Bon Voyage (1944) *** 1/2 out of 4) One of two Alfred Hitchcock directed shorts this one dealing with an escaped POW (John Blythe) who tells his Captain how he escaped only to have his Captain drop a bombshell on him. This was a wonderful little film that was a lot better than I expected. As usual, Hitchcock manages to build up some wonderful atmosphere and the "twist" in the story is very nicely done and works without any hitches.Adventure Malgache (1944) ** (out of 4) The second of two propaganda films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Three actors are getting ready for rehearsals when one of them says he doesn't know how to play the part. Another actor then tells him a story of a man he knew who was running a radio broadcast to beat the Nazis. This was a confusing mess of a film that isn't nearly as good as the previous film Bon Voyage. There's way too much dialogue and it's never clear what the director is trying to do with the material.