Six Minutes To Midnight: Nazi Intrigue - Intentional And Otherwise

 

                                The Duke and Duchess of Windsor visit Hitler in 1937

 A British spy thriller based on the actual pre-WW II existence of a Nazi Germany finishing school located, in of all places, on the British coast, Six Minutes To Midnight may be said to harbor as much mystery as what the vintage noir setting does and doesn't explore. 

Starring and co-written by Eddie Izzard who has cast himself as the targeted undercover espionage agent Miller at the actual Bexhill-on-Sea Augusta-Victoria-College finishing school for female children of Nazi Germany's military and economic elite back then, the narrative is fueled by a second covert German operation to airlift the students out of Britain as WII looms - to prevent their arrest and detention.

The plot - in multiple senses of the word - is fueled by robust performances all around. From Izzard impersonating an instructor at the school to Judi Dench as the fiercely dedicated and progressively bewildered headmistress, and Jim Broadbent and James D'Arcy as enigmatic figures whose respective motives for the sake of mystery, are best left unsaid. On the other hand, the girls themselves tend to more generic representations, perhaps owing to a less defined pursuit of cultural distinctions or awareness.

But what mystery Six Minutes To Midnight does summon to the clouded surface, though perhaps more by unintentional inference than otherwise, is historical intrigue. And not just the unanswered question -  what was a Nazi college doing in Britain in the first place. In other words, a WW II ideological confrontation that was indeed not as clear-cut as the historical record has formalized by the victors. 

 

That is, European countries including Britain, who had their own far from isolated fascist elements within - and existing into the present time. And that includes the following research explored in the SBS documentary, Spying On The Royals:

'...The British Royal Family have never been able to escape the spectre of their unsavoury historical Nazi connections – the Nazi sympathisers the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, alleged WWII plots to install a pro-Nazi government and that controversial footage of Queen Elizabeth apparently making the Nazi salute as a child.

 

Now the question remains: just how far reaching were their Nazi connections? With the Royal Family refusing to release historical documents that would bring greater clarity to the issue, alternate evidence has come to light and theories abate.

The Windsors – former monarch Edward VIII and his American love, Wallis Simpson, for whom he abdicated the throne – were a pesky thorn in the Royals’ side, not least because they were thought to be Nazi sympathisers. Intelligence given to the FBI claimed the Nazis were using the Duke and Duchess to glean information that would scuttle the war effort of the allies - Edward at the centre of an alleged plot to overthrow the Winston Churchill government in favour of a pro-Nazi one.'

Prairie Miller