final breakup of The Archers as a production company. In Million Dollar Movie (1992), the second volume of Michael Powell's memoirs, he describes Ill Met by Moonlight as one of The Archers' "greatest failures," despite the film's financial success. Part of his unhappiness is attributed to Pressburger's screenplay, but he also describes conflicts with Rank's studio bosses over casting, film format, and locations. Dirk Bogarde was eventually cast as Fermor, despite Powell's misgivings, and the filming was done in VistaVision but in black-and-white. Cyprus was experiencing armed insurgency at the time, so filming took place at Pinewood Studios in England, with location shooting in the Alpes-Maritimes in France and Italy, and on the Côte d'Azur in France. Both Patrick Leigh Fermor and Xan Fielding were present on the location shots in Alpes-Maritime as advisors. The movie's score by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who had been raised on the island of Crete, was his first for motion pictures. Watching the movie again years later, Powell complained that he "was surprised by how bad the film was," happy or at least content with the setting and music but especially disappointed in the performances of the lead actors and his own direction, which "concentrated so much on creating a Greek atmosphere that [Powell] had no time, or invention for anything else." Although Powell was especially unhappy with Bogarde's performance, Patrick Leigh Fermor expressed great satisfaction with Bogarde's representation of him. Box office The film was the seventh most popular movie at the British box office in 1957. In popular culture The story was affectionately parodied by Spike Milligan in the 1957 Goon Show episode, "Ill Met by Goonlight". See also Sophie Moss Patrick Leigh Fermor References Notes Bibliography Christie, Ian. Arrows of Desire: the films of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. London: Faber & Faber, 1994. . 163pp (illus. filmog. bibliog. index). Fermor, Patrick Leigh. Words of Mercury. John Murray, 2004. . Moss, W. Stanley. Ill Met by Moonlight. London: Harrap, 1950. . Moss, W. Stanley. A War of Shadows. London: T.V. Boardman, 1952. OCLC: 2057976. 240pp (illus. 21 cm). Powell, Michael. A Life in Movies: An Autobiography. London: Heinemann, 1986. . Powell, Michael. Million Dollar Movie. London: Heinemann, 1992. . External links Reviews and articles at the Powell & Pressburger Review Pages . Full synopsis and film stills (and clips viewable from UK libraries). 1957 films 1957 war films British black-and-white films