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The gag structure has a Greek chorus of Colonel Blimps griping about whippersnappers on the onset of war, "it's all right to have a good regiment, but where are the men to fight in it?" Civilian draftees from all walks, "differences in status" are to be disregarded or so decrees the department store boss (Raymond Huntley) to his employee (Hugh Burden). Boiler laborer (Stanley Holloway), rent collector (James Donald), travel agent (Leslie Dwyer), Scottish farmer (John Laurie) and "independent" fancy-pants (Jimmy Hanley). The lieutenant out of Dunkirk (David Niven) receives them at training camp, the sergeant (William Hartnell) puts them through their paces for spilling his tea. "Being in the Army has a lot of disadvantages but there is one compensation: You're not alone any more against anyone." In Which We Serve is the model for this recruiting assembly of dramas and jokes and singalongs and bombardments, Carol Reed keeps everything marching along. Brass and grunts are reconciled over scones at the home of the grandmotherly philanthropist (Mary Jerrold), the platoon is soon "fully trained and fighting fit." Off to North Africa, the camera tracks across apprehensive faces in a tangle of hammocks listening to distant rumbling in the night until a torpedo explosion suddenly tilts the screen. Headquarters is set in a local café to the irritation of its owner (Peter Ustinov), nothing a game of darts can't smooth over. The battlefield at last, "I suppose that's what the papers call an inferno." Advancing Jerries revealed in the dark by a flare gun, tanks materializing out of smoke, buildings flattened in an air raid. "Come on, lads. Once more for the day you missed on the exercise." All grist for Lester's derisive mill (How I Won the War). With Reginald Tate, Leo Genn, Renée Asherson, Jack Watling, John Ruddock, and Trevor Howard. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |